Ties to Forever
by Verai
Summary: Sequel to Eternity of Blood. As Hilde gets accustomed to her new position, destructive events start to occur that will shake the world. Will she and the others survive the onslaught of a new enemy?
1. Chapter 1

And thus my second epic begins... This part is kinda boring, but I'll get to the action soon... hopefully after this part.  
This is a RE-WRITE of my original Part 1. There were some continuity problems with the original, so I am posting both this new version and the original for your viewing pleasure. ^_^ This part DOES work with the original EoB timeline (thank goodness!)

WARNINGS:There is some violence, strong language and it has the yaoi pairings of Duo+Heero, and Quatre+Trowa, and the yuri pairings of Dorothy+Relena and Catherine+Iria. So if you don't like yaoi or yuri pairings, then don't read this! This also has a completely new and original character, so don't take him, he's mine! ^_~

* * *

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 1**  
**By: Top Ace**

**

* * *

**I was standing on the balcony of my mansion. No, I'm not Quatre. I'm Hilde Schbeiker. Yes, I'm German. And I don't bother trying to teach people how to pronounce my name anymore. Hell, I can barely pronounce it. I practically own the largest piece of real estate in the world. Too bad it doesn't count on Earth. I live in the Shadow Lands, an alternate dimension under the Earth. It's warm all year around because we're so close to molten lava, and it's always dark. This is where all the creepy crawlies from little kids' nightmares exist. Vampires, ghouls, imps, ogres, orcs, you name it, it's here. And I'm the leader of them all. They aren't all bad, actually. Most of them are pretty nice. We all live here like one big family.

Of course, some of the Shadow Landers weren't so happy here, and went up to what you call Earth to take it over, one city at a time. It was one of those dissidents that led to my coming here and becoming ruler. Yes, Morbius, the bastard and his henchmen who brought on the entire course of events better known as an "Eternity of Blood," as I call it. And it truly was one big bloody battle after another. I didn't get dragged in until I came to Earth and met Gabriel, a were-leopard. That's what Duo told me. He had tricked me into following him to a suspicious looking club, and that was where I stopped being human, and became a vampire.

It's not all bad. I can move quicker than the human eye can follow, I can bench press a Toyota truck, and I see just fine at night. But I admit, it has its drawbacks. We don't turn into dust if we see sunlight, we just have a bad allergic reaction to it. It kinda put an end to my days of lying on the beach trying to get a sun tan.

So it's been three months and six days since the last time anything happened. It was October 2nd, but down here it's hard to tell when time moves. That's why I brought a laptop down here to keep track of things above ground. We managed to tap into some of the cable lines below ground, so I get cable internet for free. Pretty good deal; the only price I had to pay was banging my head against the roof of the house.

It's amazing; this laptop runs completely on my power alone. No need for a battery or electricity... It's kinda eerie how it does that, but I'm not complaining.

That fellow standing outside of my door is Rasial. He is my vampire aide. He's been with me ever since Duo brought me here. I can remember the day...

"Hey everyone! I got an announcement!", Duo yelled in a booming voice.

We were standing on the balcony of the mantion that would soon be mine. Duo had called a "town meeting," and everyone came, out of respect for his father, and him of course, for he had defeated the enemy that his father could not, therefore avenging his father's death and making him a hero in the eyes of the people. Anyways, back to Duo's speech.

"Everyone, this is Hilde. She's gonna be your master, er, mistress, and heir to Shinigami."

I had been given title as Shinigami because Duo, well, to be honest, copped out of the deal. He had "other things" to do, the lazy bum, and dumped his royal responsibilities on me. Not that I minded or anything. Actually, I thought ruling a dark kingdom of creepy crawlies was kind of cool. In a dark, gothic sort of way.

"Treat her with the same respect you'd show me, or else!" He shook his fist in the air, and it glowed blue with power. I never knew Duo to be the threatening type. He always struck me as the benevolent type of ruler.

"If you're wondering why I'm not staying here and becoming the next Shinigami, it's because..." He paused, looking for the right words. "... because I don't think I'd be a very good ruler. Besides, I can't just leave my upperworld life behind."

All the citizens were mumbling. I pulled Duo aside.

"You think that was a good excuse to get out of being heir?"  
"Hilde. I'm not getting out of it, I'm just trying to protect this place. Think about, this place would fall apart with my form of 'law and order'. And besides," he concluded, "I think you make a better leader than me."  
"I still think you shouldn't have snuck out of this."  
"Listen Hilde. You're a vamp now. You can't go outside in daylight without having a major allerigic reaction. And the majority of the human population are scared shitless of vampires, and you haven't learned how to speak and hide your fangs at the same time yet."  
"And you have?"  
"Mine are retractable. And they appear at will."  
"Oh yeah. Damn."  
"You still wanna stay above ground?"

He had me there. I gave up, and decided to look upon this as a new adventure. Ruler and mistress of all the Shadow Lands. Had a nice ring to it.

"Fine," I conceeded. "I'll stay. But you owe me."  
"Of course, Hilde."

Duo turned to the crowd and pulled me to the front. I got a sudden case of stage fright, which is pretty odd for me. I waved shyly at the masses, and they cheered. I guess they accepted me. A little too easily, I might add.

I expected some trouble once Duo left to go back to Earth, or as the people here call it, the Upper Grounds. But the TYPE of trouble was not what I expected. I thought people would start to plot against me, try to assasinate me, things like that. But that wasn't the problem at all. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The people didn't dare to even think about assasination, lest I delve into their minds and saw the thought. They were afraid that I would smite people for the smallest things like an unforgiving king.

That first day when Duo had announced my new reign, I had gone out to mingle with the people. Duo had suggested that Rasial accompany me, for I didn't know a thing about this place.

"This is Rasial," Duo said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "He was around when I came here to train with Dad. He'll be a lot of help. I trust him with my life."

"No need for such compliments, milord," Rasial said. His voice was a rather deep tenor, nearly a bass. He had a calm, gentle tone, and I instantly thought of how great a singer he could be. Rasial had the greenest eyes I had ever seen, and baby fine blond hair. His complexion was pale (obviously; he was dead) and when he spoke I saw a bit of fang peek out. He hadn't been a vampire for too long, then. Duo had told me that after fifty years, a vamp learns to hide their fangs. That meant that...

"I've only been dead for 40 years."

Now I see why Duo thinks that mind reading vamps are annoying.

"Sorry. My old master used to whip me if I didn't obey her commands quickly enough, and often she didn't even say them, she thought them."

I nodded. "It's okay, Rasial. Old habits die hard... uh, I guess."

Duo chuckled. "You'd better watch what you say, Hilde. Old metaphors take on a whole new meaning. And dammit Rasial, call me Duo. I get enough of that 'milord' and 'master' crap from Heero."

Rasial laughed, and it was a pleasant sound. "Okay Duo, but you know I'm going to forget."  
"Yeah, and I'll keep reminding ya."

They had a cheerful laugh, then Duo turned to me. "Now Hilde, you take care of yourself. I'll see ya later, okay?"

With that he left, in a blink of an eye. Now I was alone, in a completely new world. I turned to Rasial. "So, how does this world work? I mean, how do you guys do taxes and such?"

Rasial gave me a quick rundown of the economic system here. Basically, whenever the lord wants something, he will send his goons to fetch some cash from the peasants. I decided to hell with that system. I planned on making this place one helluva town.

But for now, I decided to walk around and see what was here. Rasial followed me like a lap dog/tour guide, telling about places and doing whatever I asked. I tried to mingle, but whenever I tried to walk by, people would hastily get out of the way. It's hard to mingle when there's a three feet ring of space around you. I whispered to Rasial, "This isn't working. How am I supposed to incur friendship instead of wrath?"

He replied calmly, "Milady, they all have the utmost respect for you."

I just sighed and walked towards the market. I tried to buy something, but the vendors kept insisting on giving it to me for free. Some crap about not being worthy and stuff. I just about had enough of this bull.

I leapt up onto one of the empty crates in the center of town square. Don't ask me why there were crates, they were just there. "Good people, hear me out!"

I got their attention rather quickly. I took a deep breath and summoned all the public speaking skills I had gained while working for Duo & Howard's salvage company. "You need not fear. I will not deal any retribution upon anyone except for those who truly deserve it. I'm the same as you all, a fellow..." I paused, searching for the words. I couldn't use human, for even I wasn't a human anymore.

"...a fellow... citizen. In fact, I'm a foreigner..."

I watched their reactions. Mostly it was shock, as if no one had spoken to them like this before. Hell, no one probably HAS spoken to them like this before. I was probably the first one to ever speak to them on equal terms.

Slowly, one of the younger ogres stepped forward. "Forgive my rudeness, milady, but how do you intend on ruling us, if you don't know our ways?"

It was an interesting question. I smiled and said, "Don't worry, you weren't being rude. Seeking answers is a good trait." Great, I was starting to sound like some wise old man. "No, I don't intend on ruling you."

A gasp shook the crowd.

Someone cried out, "But that goes against Lord Duo's orders!"

It was like no one had ever disobeyed a Lord's decree or something. I waved my hand to quiet them down. "No, I'll still be obeying Duo's order. He said to be heir. Just because I'm heir doesn't mean I'm going to rule you all like I'm some sort of queen or something. I'll just be governing."

I got a bunch of blank looks.

"Isn't govern the same as to rule?", the young ogre asked.

"No, ruling is to force the people into doing things through fear. To govern..." I thought about it, and it did seem like the same thing. I thought harder. "To govern is almost the same thing, expcept that the lord is much more forgiving and kind, and should be a servant of the people, not the other way around."

The crowd was silent. I was afraid they were going to cart me off to tar and feather me. Then the young ogre spoke up. "So you mean..." He trailed off; I guess he didn't know the words.

"You all will have free will, to a point. As long as you obey some basic laws, you can do and say what you want," I said.

The crowd cheered. I guess they haven't had free will in a long time, if ever. Shinigami must have been one hell of a despot to incur this much wrath in the people.

From then on, life has been pretty good. I created a good economic system, taxes and all, and of course, the taxes paid for all sorts of stuff, library, post office, etc. You wouldn't believe how similar this place is to California. Well, a nineteeth century style California with the technology of today, anyways. I created a police force. They were pretty ruthless at first, but lately they've been a bit more merciful. Must have been the disappointed look on my face when they brought back the head of some poor imp they caught pickpocketing.

Of course, all this power came with a price. After setting up everything, creating all the systems and whatnot, I was dead tired. In fact, I was so exhausted, I fainted dead cold on the tenth day of the job.

I regained consciousness in my bed, in the master bedroom. It was a huge room. The decor was pretty much black and white, with white walls, black carpet, and black curtains. The bed was white with dark blue sheets. Rasial was sitting in the chair beside the bed, dressed in a simple dark blue button up dress shirt and black slacks. He was watching me with his deep green eyes.

"Feeling better, milady?"  
"Yeah. And do you HAVE to call me 'milady'?"  
"It's out of respect," he said. "And force of habit," he added quietly.  
"Well, if you really respect me, then respect my wish and call me Hilde."  
"I'll try, Hilde."  
"Okay then. How long have I been out?"  
"Only a couple of hours."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn't wasted much time. I tried to sit up, but I suddenly felt lightheaded and fell back down. "Damn, too tired," I grumbled.

Suddenly, a pale wrist was placed before me. I looked up at Rasial. "What the hell are you doing?", I asked.

"Drink. It'll make you feel better."

Duo had told me that while vampires need blood to survive above ground, down here blood wasn't needed. He didn't know why, just that while he and Heero were here, Heero didn't have to drink any blood to survive. However, to vamps, blood signifies one of three things: food, sex, or power. Sometimes it meant all three at once.

I looked at Rasial's wrist. I wasn't comfortable with sucking on someone's wrist, which is surprising, since I ripped apart another vampire with my bare hands just a few months ago and didn't blink. My discomfort with the situation must have shown, for he suddenly leaped onto the bed and pulled me into his arms. He put his hand behind my head and guided me towards his neck. I didn't need any further urging, and my stomach was crying out for sustenance. I sank my fangs into his soft flesh and drank his sweet blood. It felt warm going down my throat and it tingled, like alcohol. In fact, I was beginning to feel kind of tipsy, so I pulled away. I looked at him; his eyes were closed, his lips were parted slightly and he was panting softly. I shifted, and I noticed a hardness in his pants. He opened his emerald eyes and blinked at me. I looked into his eyes for a moment, and I had a sudden urge to go down on him. I shook the feeling away.

"Sorry," Rasial whispered in a husky voice. "I do that to people sometimes."

"Yeah, well, stop. I don't like it when people have my hormones on a leash." God knows that has happened to me one too many times, with Gabriel. "Besides, not all vampires are sex-hungry."

"Point one out to me sometime," he replied. I pointed at myself. He chuckled. "Riiiight," he said. Stupid vamps. Oh wait, I'm one too. Crap. Well, I'm different, dammit.

Well, I'd like to think so anyway.

So life went on. Or, pseudo-life, I should say. According to science, vampires can't be considered living, for we don't need to breath and we don't die unless killed in some way by outside sources. If left in peace, vampires can live on and on... But with the way things are, a vampire is lucky to make it out of it's first fifty years with less than a mangled backbone.

Anyways, Rasial and I took care of the Shadow Lands, like two good business partners. The Shadow Lands bloomed and grew, peace seemed infinite, and the economy soared. Aren't I a great businesswoman?

Then on Wednesday, the thirteenth day of the tenth month, AC 200, something happened. [1]

Everyone in the Shadow Lands felt it in their bones, and it shook us all. Rasial came to my side. He was dressed in one of his usual casual-professional outfits, usually slacks and a dress shirt. But they were always dark blue. "My lady, something's happening above ground."  
"First of all, stop calling me 'my lady' and second, get me my coat please. I'm going above ground."  
"Yes my I mean, Hilde."

He got me my coat in a flash and I headed to my old world. Rasial asked if I wanted to take an escort with me, but I didn't think I needed it.

Of course I would be wrong. When I reached portal between worlds, I felt the power surge grow stronger. I leaped through the portal and ran to the city. I came to a pitch black city. The lights were out, and people outside everywhere were screaming and generally panicking. I didn't try to calm anyone down. I ran to Duo's house.

"DUO!" I screamed as I ran towards the vicinity of his house. I knew either Heero or Duo would hear me and open the door.  
"Hilde." Heero had opened the door. He didn't bother saying anything, he just gestured for me to come inside.

Everyone was there: the five ex-Gundam pilots, Iria, Catherine, Dorothy, Relena & Sally. Noin and Zechs were still terraforming Mars. You'd think they'd be done after four years, but no, they were still working on it.

We sat around the fire place, and Quatre began to speak.

"None of us know what's going on. Do you know what's going on, Hilde?"

I shook my head. "No, I came as soon as I felt the tremors."

"You felt them all the way from the Shadow Lands?" Duo asked.

"Yeah, we all did. Rasial reported something strange happening above ground, and everyone felt the strange quakes in the ground," I replied.

We sat in silence, everyone absorbing the information I had just coughed up. Finally Duo spoke.

"I say we go to the scene of the most energy. What do ya'll say?"

There was a hum of agreement before we headed for the cars. Well, most of us headed for cars. Dorothy had her strange yellow limo-type car, and Wufei & Sally had their Chevy truck. It was a white Silverado; I liked it a lot. The supernatural beings with super speed, like me, Trowa, Quatre, and Heero, all followed along, sitting on top of the cars acting as lookouts. Duo could have sat up with us, but he chose to drive his Jeep. He never could use his powers to their full potential. I guess he likes being a down to earth kind of guy. Hence the reason he gave me the title as Shinigami. He could never get used to using his powers 24-7.

We finally reached Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. It was a nice place to make out. Not that I would know from personal experience or anything. The energy waves that we had been feeling all eminated from the top of the tower.

"Women, stay here." Typical Wufei command.

I shook my head. "No way, I'm going. I came here to find out what all this crap was about, and dammit, I'm going to find out."

Wufei just shrugged, and he and Sally ran towards the tower. The rest of us followed, a sense of urgency flooding our minds and instincts.

We climbed the stairs, running as if hell itself was on our heels. There was something about this event, something completely off about the entire situation. I didn't like this feeling. When we got to the top, we were treated to a strange sight. It was a flaming triangle pointed downwards, with a horizontal line in the middle.

"What the hell is that?" Duo asked no one in particular. The rest of us shrugged.

"It's the wiccan symbol for Earth," Dorothy said. She and Relena had just made it to the top of the tower. I looked at them for a split second, then turned back to the fiery symbol. Then suddenly it flashed brightly. Relena, Quatre and Iria all started walking towards it, a strange gleam in their eyes. "Hey, wait" I started to say, and then another flash of light made all of us pull back, except for those three. "Oi!", I heard Duo shout.

The bright light continued to shine, and I had to step back towards the stairs. I noticed that Heero and Duo were doing the same thing. But Iria, Quatre and Relena were all walking towards it, slowly as if they were in a trance. For all I knew, they might have been, with their glassy eyes and calm look on their faces.

The rest of us watched as if we were in some cruel dream, and Dorothy called out, "Relena! Stop! It's dangerous!" But Relena kept walking, and so did the Winner siblings. They reached out and touched the symbol, and a sudden burst of energy blew us to the walls. Well, most of us anyway. Quatre, Iria and Relena all collapsed, and their respective life partners ran up to them as the light from the burning symbol disappeared, leaving nothing suspicious. It was as if nothing had happened.

"Quatre? Quatre!" Trowa said as he took Quatre's motionless body into his arms. Another cry from the other side of the tower caught my attention. "Relena!" Dorothy's voice was calm, but I could sense an underlying worry from the witch for the young leader of the world. She really is a witch in the true sense of the word, don't think I'm insulting her or anything. Dorothy had been interested in Wiccan for a long time, and after a while she became a witch for real.

"Iria!" Catherine, Trowa's sister, pulled Iria into her lap. It was funny how after Trowa and Quatre made the announcement that they were in love, and after they had introduced the two sisters, Iria and Catherine had fallen into a deep love for each other. Like brother, like sister, I suppose. That was a long time ago, when I was still human. Ah, to be human again.

"What the hell was that?" Wufei asked. He had 'worry-wort' written all over his face. I looked around the tower, then I walked up to the observation windows and looked outside. It was still dark, but I could sense the sun rising.

"Daylight is coming," Heero said. "We'd better go home before we get caught."

Everyone nodded and we headed home. Trowa carried Quatre, Heero carried Relena, and Duo carried Iria. We hopped back into our cars and drove home, the rising sun behind us.

They were still out by the time we reached Duo's house.

"They just need some rest," Trowa said quietly. I watched Trowa, Catherine and Dorothy sit around and worry about their loved ones, and suddenly felt lonely. Of all of them, I was the only one who was still well and truly single. I quietly went outside. Wufei and Sally went home to check on their son, Liu Po. I waved bye to them as they left. Don't worry, they had a babysitter, so they said.

After being in the Shadow Lands for such a long time, it feels sort of weird to be in the sunlight again. The rays of the dawn hit me in the face, and I winced. I couldn't open my eyes and watch its glorious beauty. I could only watch behind the shade of a tree. I sat down on the veranda and stared out into the street. I missed being human.

"Doing okay, Hilde-neechan?"  
"I'm okay, Duo-niichan."

He sat next to me and put his arm around me shoulders. "Cheer up, it'll be okay." I just nodded. "But," he continued, "this new event bugs me. Why would a burning symbol for the earth show up at Coit Tower? And why did the earth shake when it happened?"

"And why was there a blackout in the city?", Heero said as he walked up behind us and sat behind Duo. He pulled Duo into his lap, and put a hand in my hair and ruffled it like an older brother would do his sister. I looked at him, and he seemed gentler than I had ever seen him. Maybe Duo finally de-programmed Heero, so he could be himself again. Relena once told me that Dr. J had told her that Heero was a caring, kind, loving boy before the training. I wonder if this is what he would have always been like if it hadn't been for the training.

Heero looked at me with gentle eyes, and I knew that he was himself again. I smiled. "Whatever happens, we'll get through it together, right? I know how cheesy that sounds, but tell me we won't be set against each other again, right?"

Duo and Heero nodded. They remembered when Heero and I were set against Duo in a battle of wills between Morbius and Duo. I shook the memory away. It still gave me nightmares at times.

"Alright! Then let's get some rest... we've had a tiring day," I said, and got up to go back inside. Duo and Heero got up and followed me. Everyone was going to stay at Duo's house today, and once all of us had decided where to sleep, we settled down to get some rest.

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[1]: Yes, I worked it all out. If July 31 is on a Saturday, then October 13 will come on a Wednesday. Yes, I have nothing better to do other than figure out dates for my fics... ^^;;

Well, that part was quite boring, and I left it at a pseudo-cliffhanger...


	2. Chapter 2

No notes, just on with the show.

WARNINGS: There is some violence, strong language and it has the yaoi pairings of Duo+Heero, and Quatre+Trowa, and the yuri pairings of Dorothy+Relena and Catherine+Iria. So if you don't like yaoi or yuri pairings, then don't read this! This also has a completely new and original character, so don't take him, he's mine! ^_~

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 2**  
**By: Top Ace**

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~_What's that?~_

_~A light? A bright, warm light...~_

_~Wings?~_

_~A woman tied up on a cross?~_

_~She looks like she's in pain...~_

_~Pigtails?_~

I woke up as night was approaching, the rays of the setting sun blinding me as I got up off the sofa. Duo only had two bedrooms in his house, so Duo and Heero got a room, and Quatre and Trowa got a room. The women all slept on the couches or on the floor. Just goes to show how much has changed since the days of ye olde chivalry. I managed to get a couch. So did Iria and Relena, but that was because they were unconscious. Catherine and Dorothy were snoozing next to their respective partners in sleeping bags on the floor.

I suddenly thought of the strange dream I had. It wasn't really a dream, it was more like a flash of an image. I got up and walked outside so I could contemplate it in the fresh air. The sun's light was turning a deep red as it sank below the horizon. I stared at it for a whole three seconds before I had to turn away. I leaped up onto the roof and sat there, enjoying the coming of the night.

The image that I had dreamed was silhouetted in darkness, with the occasional flash of lightning brighting up the sky, but I still couldn't see much. There was a huge cross. Yes, a large cross, made of skinny poles. In the middle of it I saw a female figure, wrapped up in vines or rope, her arms out and her legs close together like she was being crucified. Her angel wings drooped on either side of her, feathers scattered around the area and fluttering in the air down to the ground. Her hair was in pigtails, shoulder length, with stray hairs coming out of the hairband. I couldn't tell much else from the image; I couldn't see any facial features, and I couldn't tell if she was awake or not. But there was a sense of pain, a sense of agony that I couldn't brush away. It clung to me like a bad stench, clouding my senses if I thought about it too much.

I shook my head to chase away the image. It haunted me. That woman looked too young, seemed too innocent to be there. Whenever I thought about that dream, I felt a sense of dread, as if everything that was happening was all to come to that point; the point where we would see that girl on a cross.

I hopped off the balcony backwards and twirled around. Rasial was standing on the porch, looking at me.

"That's dangerous, milady."  
"Tell me again when I don't have the strength of hundred humans."  
"Yes." He chuckled, amused at my sardonic joke, I suppose.

"So," I started to ask, "what are doing here?"  
"I was worried for your safety, mi Hilde."  
"Good, you remembered." I was referring to the fact that he almost called me "milady." I hate it when people make me sound like some kind of lord or something. "And don't worry about me. You know that if I kick the bucket, you'll be in charge. So don't sweat. Either way, the Shadow Lands are in good hands."  
"'Kick the bucket', Hilde?"  
"Oh yeah, I forgot. You're old." I smirked at my last comment. He was older than me, but not old enough to get truly recognized in the world. He just gave me a look that was a cross between disdain and amusement. "'Kick the bucket' means to die, pass on, etcetera."  
"Oh."

We looked at each other in silence for a few moments, then I turned around to head back inside. "Feel free to follow me," I said to him. I felt him move behind me, like the quiet shadow of myself.

By the time I had gone back inside, everyone was awake. Relena and Iria were still out cold. Trowa and Quatre had not come out of their rooms yet, so I assumed that blondie was still unconscious as well. Heero and Duo were busy making dinner, for I heard frying sounds and the occasional giggle from Duo. More like they were making whoopee in there, but I didn't complain. Just as long as no human fluids go into the food.

There was a knock on the front door and a muffled "Hello?"

I recognized Sally's voice. I walked back to the door and opened it. Wufei and Sally stood outside, little baby Liu Po in Wufei's arms. "Hi! Come on in," I said cheerfully. They walked in and settled on the couch that I had been sleeping on. Sally looked over at Relena.

"She isn't awake yet, is she?"  
I shook my head. "Nope, not yet." I walked over to Liu Po and wiggled my fingers. "What a cutie! He's gonna break hearts someday."

Sally and Wufei just beamed.

I walked away from the living room and went into the dining room, closing the door behind me. I sat down at the small dining table, and stared outside at the oncoming night. Rasial sat across from me. I felt him staring at me, and decided to ignore it. All problems go away if you ignore them for long enough, right?

...

"Rasial... do you have to stare at me like that?"  
"Sorry."

I glanced over at him without turning my head. He was now looking out the window as well. I sighed and turned back to the window. Why does he always look at me like that? With eyes as green as emeralds, and twice as scrutinizing. It's like he's trying to figure me out just by looking at me. I haven't felt him enter my head far enough to discern any major secrets (like I have any) and I have learned from Duo how to block people from entering the mind in the first place. What the heck is he doing?

I sighed and stood up. "What's taking them so long, I'm hungry."  
"Mi... Hilde, we can't eat regular food, remember?"  
"Damn."

Duo told me that true vampires can't eat regular food after a few months or so of becoming a vampire. So Rasial and I couldn't eat. Heero can because Duo screwed up on the original resurrection and so Heero's still half alive. Duo can because he's only half vampire. Damn. I really, really wanted a hamburger or some french fries or SOMETHING other than the crap we've been eating in the Shadow Lands.

"Here."

I finally noticed Rasial, who had got up quietly without me hearing. He was standing behind me, one arm around my waist, one pale wrist in front of my face. How did he do that without me noticing?

I was so hungry that I didn't care about being squeamish about feeding from the wrist. I bit into him. "Mmm..." I licked up the stray drops of blood on his wrist. I fed from him for who knows how long. Feeding seems to make time go the other way for some reason.

When I was full, I pulled away. I turned around to face him, and he was looking at me like I was the center of his world. Which, quite frankly, scared the hell out of me. I tried to pull away, but the arm around my waist tightened. He leaned in and licked off the stray drops of blood on my face. He did it slowly, and his emerald eyes were boring into me the entire time. I tried my hardest not to blush.

"You smell of blood. It must be close to your skin," he joked in a deep, husky voice, his lips so close to me that they brushed my cheek as he talked. Damn, I knew I couldn't stop the blood rushing to my head. Stupid human reactions. Maybe I'll learn to control them after a time...

I heard Duo's footsteps nearing the door to the dining room, and an instant later Rasial was sitting back at the table, looking out the window.

"Dinner! Oh... sorry you two, guess you can't eat anything..."  
"It's okay Duo, I've... Um, I'm not that hungry anyways."  
"You sure Hilde? I could always donate some blood to ya."  
"I'm fine, thanks anyways."  
"Alright then. Raz! You want some?"

I looked over at 'Raz'. He looked up and nodded. Duo walked over to him and put out his wrist. Rasial took it graciously, bit into his wrist at the vein and drank. Duo smiled, like a master would to an accomplished apprentice. It was at that moment that Heero walked in.

Heero stopped short and stared at the scene. I was afraid that he might try to kill Rasial, so I started to move in between them.

"Relax Hilde. I'm not mad," he said. "I just expected Rasial to be drinking from you, Hilde."  
"Why me? Duo's the real Shinigami here. And not to mention he's also a necromancer."

Heero just shrugged and started setting up the table. Rasial finished his 'meal' and got up. "I came to tell Hilde something... but since you're all here together, I'll tell you all at once."

Duo went to call everyone to dinner, and when everyone (except for the people who were unconscious and Trowa) was situated around the table, Rasial spoke.

"There's another dimensional rift, and it's somewhere near San Francisco."

Most of us looked blankly at him.

I asked, "Meaning...?"

"Meaning," he replied, "that an opening to another world like the Shadow Lands has appeared here. That means that beings from THAT dimensional plane can come here, and us there. None of us in the Shadow Lands have figured out which world it connects to, but if it's a hostile dimension, then we're looking at a war on our hands."

Silence filled the room.

"How do we stop this?", Quatre asked.

"I don't know," Rasial answered. "As far as I know, once a dimensional rift opens, it can't be shut with any of our powers. I have heard that only... God can close and open rifts."

"God? Which god?", Heero asked. He was Japanese, and a Shintoist, so he believe in the spirits which dwell, well, everywhere. In Shintoism, there were gods for almost everything. [1]

"I think he means God, the Lord of all things in the three major monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam," Quatre said as he walked in, supported by Trowa. I was surprised that he had the energy to walk, especially after last night.

"That's right," Relena said quietly. She and Iria walked in following them. All of them had pretty much recovered their energy, but they looked like they had just gotten out of bed. Well, they just had gotten out of bed, which would explain why they looked the way they did.

Seats were changed around and more chairs were brought to the table. Once everyone was settled, they began to eat. The three psychics ate more ravenously than the others. Rasial and I left the room. I didn't want to see them eat when I couldn't. Sounds like jealousy, but it's true. After 20 years of eating Earth food, I suddenly had been torn away from it due to physical changes in my body. It really sucked.

"Are you alright, Hilde?"  
"Just peachy."  
"You sure?"  
"Yes, now let me think."  
"As you wish, milady."

He disappeared from my sight. It was like he was there one moment, then I blinked and he was gone. Only I, the crescent moon, and the sound of the rustling of the trees remained.

So I sat on the roof, alone. I had been doing this a lot lately. Not that I'm not a social person, I just didn't feel like socializing at this point in time. I wanted to think; I just wanted think about all the crap that has happened to me in the past six months, and how it all changed my life forever. I didn't actually have any real plans anyways, so I guess it could have turned out worse. When I came to Earth with Gabriel, I thought I was taking a bold new step in life.

Well that 'step' took me in an entirely new direction. So now, here I am.

I heard a faint zapping sound in the distance. I heard a shocked gasp from inside the house before the lights went out. I'm assuming that one of the psychics saw it coming before it happened. I hopped off the roof and ran inside.

"What happened?" I asked.  
"There's been a blackout," Duo replied with some trepidation.  
"I know that, I mean, who gasped?"

Everyone pointed at Relena. I guessed she was the more psychic of the three in our group.

"Bay Bridge. They're there," Relena said mysteriously.  
"Who?", I asked. "Who's there?"  
"The ones who caused this."

It didn't take a psychic to know what we were all thinking. Haul ass to Bay Bridge!

We all rushed out to the cars once again. Rasial appeared beside me so suddenly that I jumped.

"Gah! Where were you?" I said. I was still slightly irked at Rasial's sudden acts of appearing and disappearing.

"No time. Let's go," he said with a dead seriousness. I just nodded. It didn't really matter where he was anyways. I jumped into Duo's jeep, as did Duo, Heero and Rasial. Duo hit the gas and we were off, followed by the others in their respective cars.

It did look kind of odd, four cars all heading for the Bay Bridge at top speed. But we didn't care. The cause of the strange blackout was at the top of our worry list. We could worry about the strange looks we were getting later.

I idly glanced at my watch. 8:20 PM. Great. I was missing a very important show right now.

We arrived at the foot of the West side of Bay Bridge. I had never been here before, so I took a quick moment to notice its beauty. It was a double level bridge, with cars going underneath other cars. People going eastbound would go to the lower level, while commuters going west would take the scenic route and drive on the higher level.

Then Duo suddenly pulled over. The others followed suit. We all got out of our cars and stared at the sky.

A large greenish cloud was forming above the bridge. Rays of purple light were streaming from it. Traffic on the bridge had practically stopped. The sounds of observers saying "what is that thing?" and "take a look at that" filled the area. I decided to get a closer look. I leaped up to the top of the suspension cable and started running to the tower that supported it. The others who could jump this high followed suit.

Dorothy and Relena were stuck on the ground. The others had a way of getting up here. Duo, Heero, Rasial and I were vampires (or at least partly) so we could just jump up there. Wufei was a dragon; enough said. Trowa was a were-lion, so he could jump as high as we could.

Quatre and Iria just sprouted white angel wings and flew into the air. Catherine was half-fairy; I'll tell that story later, but all I can say now is that she can sprout cute little fairy wings and fly too; it just takes a lot of power to do so. Sally had some strange power that I couldn't identify. All I know is that she can fly (without having to use wings) and teleport to places she has already been to. [2]

I was the first to reach the middle of the suspension bridge, on top of one of the towers. The cloud was directly above me now. I looked up, and as the others reached me, the cloud began to billow out, and bright light came from the center. I jumped back from the light, and a spotlight shone in the center of the tower. We all stood there, mouths agape, staring.

Three winged figures floated down from the cloud. The figure to the left was wearing a dark blue robe and he was holding a staff with an eagle on its head. The second figure was in the middle, wearing a dark green robe and he was holding a spear with snakes wrapped around the pole. The third figure on the right was dressed in a white robe with a sword. The handle of the sword was designed in the shape of crane, the pommel made of the feet, the grip made of the legs, the quillon made of the wings and the guard was made of the neck and head. [3]

And they all had black boots, gloves, and... wings. Black wings like a crow.

From left to right, they spoke.  
"Our names are Raguel,"  
"Saraqael,"  
"and Remiel."

Then they spoke in unison. "We have come to destroy."

"Destroy what?" Duo asked with a defiant tone.

"The world."

We were in deep shit.

* * *

[1]: I THINK that's right... Our class had to do a project on Japanese culture, and one group did a report on Shintoism... I didn't pay much attention to them while they presented their report, so my infomation might be a bit muddled.  
[2]: Think Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo.  
[3]: Sword Terminology: That'll tell you what all the parts are and such. I hope to draw a picture of the sword someday.


	3. Chapter 3

Well then... Yeah. Here's the next part. Man, I'm pumping out parts like a rabbit pumps out babies...

WARNINGS: There is some violence, strong language and it has the yaoi pairings of Duo+Heero, and Quatre+Trowa, and the yuri pairings of Dorothy+Relena and Catherine+Iria. So if you don't like yaoi or yuri pairings, then don't read this! This also has a completely new and original character, so don't take him, he's mine! ^_~

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 3**  
**By: Top Ace**

* * *

The three dark angels landed on the tower before us and stood side by side, wielding their weapons.

"Why?" Quatre was looking at them with the eyes of one who didn't want to see anymore bloodshed. In fact, I believe we all felt that way. "Why do you want to destroy us? We've done you no harm!"

"This experiment is over," Remiel said. With that said, the three of them raised their weapons. Lightning began to come forth and strike the water beside the bridge. Clouds began to form, and thunder roared through the air. The people below were now panicking, and running away in terror. I would too, if I could just get rid of my tendency to help the others.

"What experiment?" I yelled over the thundering of the skies.

"This experiment," Saraqael said. He spread his arms, a gesture that meant everything. "This was our little experiment."

"You mean, this world? This world was your 'little' experiment?" Duo was really ticked off now. Gee, I wonder why.

"Yes, and we wish to terminate it. So begone!" Saraqael lifted his arm, and a waterspout flew out of the bay and came upon us, smashing into the tower and sending waves of water outwards over the bridge. The faster people got out of the way, but one of us wasn't so lucky.

"Catherine!"

Both Trowa and Iria called for her and rushed for the poor fairy, who was trapped in the swirling water. I wanted to help, but a second whirlpool kept me and the others from reaching them.

More water funnels appeared, crashing into the bridge. It shook with the impact, and I knew that all the cars here would end up under 37 million pounds of steel. As yet another waterspout came to crash upon me, I leaped out of the way to the cable running between the towers. I looked down, and had a quick instant of vertigo before I regained my composure. It would be a 520 feet drop if I slipped and fell here. Not fun. [1]

The others were leaping and bounding out of the way as quick as they could. None of us could really get close enough to attack the three "angels" and cause some damage. I decided to try. I gave a quick glance to Trowa, Iria and Catherine. Catherine was dripping wet, but she was okay. I guess the others had fished her out of the whirlpool.

There was no time to think of a plan. I just took a leap of faith.

"Lady Hilde!"

Rasial pushed me out of the way just as a bolt of lightning came down on the spot where I was about to land. We fell a hundred feet before Rasial used his power to slow our descent. I looked at him; he wasn't even breaking a sweat. I didn't say anything, but I had my suspicions. Rasial didn't feel like a super powerful vampire...

Once we landed on the bridge, he looked for any wounds. "Are you okay, lady Hilde?"  
"Yes. What's with the 'lady' Hilde stuff?"  
"You said I couldn't call you 'milady', so this is the next best thing."  
"Ah."

I got right back up and jumped back up to the top of the tower. Rasial followed me, and we leaped towards the triumvirate. Rasial summoned a sword of glowing gold, with a golden eagle on the hand guard. [2]

I realized that I didn't have a weapon of my own. Bummer for me. I just did what any good supernatural being would do in a situation like this.

I summoned two energy balls in my palms and closed my hands around them, spreading the energy through my fingers until I had gloves of energy swirling around my fists. We looked at each other, and after giving each other a quick nod, we leapt at the angels. Something on their backs caught my attention. "Another wing...?"

We must have caught them by surprise, or the others were doing a damn good job of being diversions, because I nicked Remiel, the one with the crane sword, in the arm. Red blood flowed from the wound, and I was surprised. Maybe I was expecting blue blood.

"Vile creature!", he screamed as he turned around and slashed at me as I fell away from him. A golden beam of energy came from his sword, and I felt it strike me with all the power of the gods. It felt like being immersed into a volcano for a split second, then being pounded into the rocks like a battering ram.

Before I was hit, I had enough power and concentration to land on the bridge with no harm. After I was hit, I barely had enough energy to keep my eyes open. I was going to fall that 520 feet to the ice cold water below, and probably die from the shock of hitting the water and the temperature change. Damn, and I was beginning to enjoy being a vampire.

I only heard a whooshing sound before I found myself floating again. I opened one eye, and saw Rasial holding me in his arms.

"Why... why do you always come to save me? Don't you have better things to do?", I said with a cough.  
"You're my mistress now. It's my duty to protect you, Lady Hilde." He pecked me on the cheek.  
"You're quite the smoothie, aren't you?" I said with a little cynicism in my voice.

He shruged. "Eh."

A flash caught my eye and I looked behind him. "Rasial, look out!"

He turned around just in time to see the blue shot of energy pummel into us. He wrapped himself around me tightly, and took the blow, sending us spiraling towards the ice cold water. I passed out before I could find out whether we hit the water or not.

"Hilde... Hilde... HILDE!"

I felt someone slap me on the cheek. I looked up and saw Duo, his indigo eyes filled with worry. He had a few cuts and scrapes on his face, and his black shirt had been ripped nearly to shreds. I slowly sat up and looked around. We were on the side of the bridge we had started from. Everything looked the same... except for the fact that the Bay Bridge was gone.

I stood up suddenly and ran to the edge of the water. The bridge had collapsed. Bits of the steel towers were sticking up out of the water, and the pillars that once supported the great bridge were towering over the wreckage, solemn in the morning sun. I must have been out ice cold to have missed that.

"Duo, what happened?"  
"After you and Rasial took the big plunge, the three angels let loose some weird earthquake, and the bridge went totally under. We were so worried about you two, until Rasial hauled you onto the shore nearby and passed out. He nearly fell back into the water again. He's over there being healed by Quatre."

I looked over at the group huddled around Rasial. I walked towards them, and they all turned back to look at me.

"Feeling better, Hilde?", Quatre asked in a shaky voice. He looked drained and tired, but he kept on healing Rasial. I looked at Rasial's motionless body. His skin was nearly a shade of blue, and the cuts in his outfit were a sign of what kind of damage he had recieved. I looked at my own shirt and jeans. They were relatively undamaged, even though I had taken that strange sword beam attack from Remiel.

I looked over at Trowa, Catherine and Iria. Iria was holding a tired and cold Catherine in her arms, rubbing warmth into her slender shoulders. Trowa was behind Quatre, his arms around his shoulders as Quatre healed Rasial. I looked around for Heero.

Heero was with Duo, of course. They were just holding each other on the bank, looking out at the wreckage.

Wufei and Sally were gone. I supposed they went back home to check on Liu Po. I'm surprised that they would leave their child alone for so long. I asked Duo if anyone was left at home to take care of Liu Po while we were out.

"Now that I think about it, we did kinda leave the little kid there to fend for himself... jeez, you'd think Wufei and Sally would be more responsible."

I just shook my head. "Yeah." Then I noticed that Dorothy and Relena were gone too. I asked Heero and Duo where they went, and Heero said, "They went home early to check on Liu Po while we were fighting."  
Duo looked at him. "How come you know?"  
"Because I noticed that she was leaving with Dorothy, so I read her mind real quick."  
"And she LETS you?"  
"She's got nothing to hide. We're like you and Hilde. Siblings."

I just laughed. "Siblings? That would explain a few things," I joked. I was talking about the time we had gone into a mall and came out with nearly the same type of items. I walked back to Rasial, who had been healed completely by Quatre. Trowa was holding Quatre gently, since poor blondie had passed out from exhaustion. I bent down to pull Rasial into my lap.

"Hey. Wake up, man."  
"Hm? Lady Hilde?"  
"Quit with the 'lady' crap. It makes me uncomfortable."  
"Now you know how Lord Duo feels. But he got used to it, I'm sure you can."  
"Eh."

We drove back to Duo's house. Quatre was sleeping in Trowa's arms as he drove, Catherine and Iria were cuddling, and Rasial and I were sitting in the back of Duo's car, enjoying the wind in our hair and the freshness of the air.

Now would be a good time to talk about Catherine. Yes, she's a fairy. But only half-fairy. Apparently, her mother was tricked into sleeping with a fairy who looked like Catherine's father. Fairies have an ability called "glamor," which can make a person feel, well, horny. And they especially feel attracted to the one who glamored them. And that's how Catherine was conceived.

So Catherine has a fairy's powers and strength with a human's body. Most people think fairies are tiny and can be crushed under a thumb. The truth is far from it. Fairies are just like people, except with translucent wings that can retract, and they have beauty, strength and powers beyond a normal human's. So people will look at her and think "weak," but when they see her punch, wow. She's one tough cookie. I always had a lot of respect for her. Or maybe I had a crush on her once. I don't know, but it doesn't matter now. I still like her for who she is; a strong and straightforward woman.

Iria is like Quatre; a houri. In Islamic myths, a houri is one of the beautiful virgins of the Koranic paradise. Iria certainly is pretty, with blond hair and blue eyes like her brother. As for the virgin part... I'm not so sure. Iria looks a lot like her brother, compared to her other sisters. I've seen a few of them in pictures. Quatre tells me he has 29 sisters. I have yet to see all of them at once. I always thought Quatre was kind of feminine looking, but Trowa would rip me to shreds if I said anything.

Sally... I don't know what the hell Sally is. She says she's got Nordic blood in her. But she also says she has Chinese blood in her. Looking at her face, I can tell that she's telling the truth, as unlikely as it may seem. Maybe one day I'll ask her what she is... because being able to fly and teleport certainly isn't a regular human trait.

We arrived at Duo's house right when the sun was coming up. Oh goody, I get to sleep some more.

We piled into the house one by one. Dorothy and Relena were already on one of the sofas, fast asleep. Wufei, Sally and Liu Po were gone; Duo found a note from Wufei saying that they had gone back home to recuperate, and to take care of Liu Po.

The boys went into their respective rooms; Iria and Catherine slumped down on the other sofa, and they fell asleep quickly too.

"Damn, no more sofas," I whispered. I looked at Rasial. He just smiled and held out his hand. I raised an eyebrow. "What?"  
"Let's go," he said.  
"Where?"  
"Back home."

I nodded. I wrote a quick note to Duo saying where we had gone, and then I stepped outside, shutting the door quietly. Rasial extended his hand to me once more, and I looked at it for a few moments before ignoring it.

"Well excuse me for being a gentleman," he said with a dejected tone. I laughed my ass off.

"That's the first time I've ever heard you sound like that."  
"Sound like what?"  
"A spurned lover."

He just nodded. "I'm not your lover... yet." He winked before he disappeared.

"Why you little...!" I chased after him, all the way back to the Shadow Lands.

I chased him all the way to my master bedroom in the mansion in the Shadow Lands. I walked into the room, expecting to pounce him and to give him a good lesson on who was the master, but apparently my eyes deceived me.

"Rasial?"  
"RAAAAAAAAAH!"

He leapt from the rafters of my pitched ceiling. I didn't even think of him hiding up there. He tackled me and we flew onto the bed, him on top of me and laughing like there was nothing funnier in the world.

"Haha... and you... your face... haha... so scared...," he said while laughing with a maniacal tone.

I just sighed and gave in to defeat. "Alright, you win. Now get off me."

He was still laughing. I thought he was my loyal servant...

"You were so shocked," he said after taking a few breaths. "You're still so human," he whispered, and he stroked my face lightly with his hands. "So beautiful..."

He began to lean in for a kiss, but I pushed him away. "Uh-uh, not now, buddy. We've got things to do. And I want to sleep."

He pouted; I can't believe he did that. When you think you know a guy...

"Can I sleep with you?"

I raised an eyebrow at him; that's twice in one day. "Excuse me?"  
"I said"  
"I heard you. You mean, just sleep? No funny stuff?"  
"Yes. I wouldn't dare take advantage of you, Lady Hilde."  
"Riiiight..."  
"I won't. I promise." He raised his hand in a mock boy scout promise.

I just laughed. He was annoying me and making me laugh. What an odd man.

"Fine, you can stay. Just, don't touch me where you shouldn't. Alright?"

He nodded, and I crawled into the covers. He crawled in after me, and after I felt his arm wrap around my waist, I fell into a deep sleep, covered with warmth and other such fuzzy feelings.

_~It's that dream again...~_

_~The lady with the pigtails...~_

_~It looks like she's saying something...~_

_~But she's not saying it to me...~_

I woke up feeling like a pile of steel fell on me. Wait, a pile of steel probaby DID fall on me. I didn't know the side effects of being healed quickly by Quatre, but I think that feeling the pain afterwards is one of them. I turned over in my bed and looked right into a pair of emerald green eyes.

"GAH! Don't DO that!"  
"Don't do what?", he said innocently with a smile. I just wanted to smack that grin off his face.  
"Christ, you're just like a cat, with those green eyes of yours... sheesh."  
"Heh heh. 'Sheesh.' How cute."  
"Shut up."

I pulled myself out of his arms and out of bed. I had no idea what time it was, and I was too lazy to boot up my laptop to find out. My last wristwatch had broke and I never got around to buying another one. I walked into the bathroom and took a bath. There were no showers in the Shadow Lands. It really pissed me off the first time I realized that, but after a while, you get used to it. In fact, I was starting to enjoy it. I filled the tub and heated the water using my power. When it was the right temperature, I crawled in.

It was so soothing and relaxing just to lie in a nice warm bath...

"Peekaboo!"

I threw my soap bar at him.

He caught it in one hand, and tossed it back to me. I tried to cover myself, but it was pretty pointless. He had already seen me naked before (he walked in on me once while I was changing) and I didn't have any bath bubbles to cover myself with. Nonetheless, I put a hand over my chest and another over my crotch.

"The hell is your problem? Can't a girl get some privacy?"  
"No problem here," he said with a surrepitious grin. "I'm here to serve you, remember? Let me wash your back for you."  
"Uh... how about no?"  
"Come on. I can reach those hard-to-reach places."  
"Do the words 'no', 'uh-uh' and 'no way' mean anything to you?"  
"Fine, fine. I'll get your clothes ready, MADAM."

He turned around, lifted his chin and left, slamming the door. I laughed out loud, and made sure he heard it. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought we were having some sort of marital scuffle.

Nah.

I got out of the bath and dried myself, then wrapping the towel around me I walked back to me room. Rasial was standing right in front of the door, a pile of clothes in his arms. He tossed them at me. I caught them, but at the same time my towel fell off. Goddammit.

"Flashing me is no way to apologize," he said with a smirk.

I just sighed, shook my head, bent down to grab my towel, and walked back into the bathroom.

When I had dressed, I walked back outside to thank Rasial. He had picked out a nice navy blue polo shirt, black jeans and light white jacket. I liked the outfit; it fit me nicely. I didn't know he knew my favorite color scheme: Blue, black, and white. I wanted to thank him, and to yell at him for walking in on me. But mostly to thank him.

However, Rasial was gone.

I didn't think about it; he had probably gone off to do some work. I was about to leave the room to go take care of some business when I felt the mansion shake. I ran downstairs to the main hall. Rasial was already there with my coat.

"Back to the Upper Grounds, Lady Hilde?" All signs of joking were gone from his face as he handed me my coat. I nodded. We left in a flash for Duo's house once more.

* * *

[1]: Yes, from the towers it's a 526 feet drop to the water below. So I figured that since she's on the cable, she'd be about 6 feet below the top of the tower.

[2]: Ack, I'm not sure for names of the sword parts... the part I mention is the part between the blade and hilt on a knight's sword... I'll draw that someday too, just for fun.


	4. Chapter 4

I just learned that Seraphim is plural for Seraph... whoops...

WARNINGS: There is some violence, strong language and it has the yaoi pairings of Duo+Heero, and Quatre+Trowa, and the yuri pairings of Dorothy+Relena and Catherine+Iria. So if you don't like yaoi or yuri pairings, then don't read this! This also has a completely new and original character, so don't take him, he's mine! ^_~

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 4**  
**By: Top Ace**

* * *

We reached Duo's house just as the sun was setting again. Heero opened the door for us. We walked in to an empty living room. The girls had left. Quatre and Trowa's energy couldn't be felt. It was just the two of them once more.

"Hey Hilde," Duo said as he walked in from the kitchen. "The others left, but they promised to keep a look out for those three angels that appeared the other night."

I remembered something; an image flashed through my mind: a third wing.

"I don't think we should call them 'angels'," I said. "I think we should call them... seraphim."

Duo gave me a strange look. "Seraphim?"  
"Yeah, you know, the highest order of angels. They were called seraphim, and they had three wings."

Duo shruged. "Sure, okay. seraphim. So these 'seraphim' have practically disappeared from sight and we don't know where they are or how to track them."

"We felt a rumble down in the Shadow Lands," I said.

"Really?" Duo looked at me with a questioning look. "We didn't feel anything up here."

Rasial and I looked at each other.

"You think it was coming from the Shadow Lands?", Rasial asked.  
"I don't know; maybe it was just an aftershock," I suggested.  
"But what if it wasn't?"  
"We shouldn't worry about it; most of the people down there can take better care of themselves than the humans up here."  
"Ah."  
"Besides, I think the seraphim aren't out to hurt anyone personally."

"Bullshit!" Duo looked at us like were were out of our minds. Well, he looked at ME like I was out of my mind. "Not out to hurt anyone? What the hell did you think they did to us?"

"But that's just the thing," I argued, "We were in the way; it's not like they came here just to hunt us down. I think they're here to destroy certain places, like the Bay Bridge. Didn't you see on the news? Very few casualities."

"So?" Duo still wasn't impressed. "Look, either way we have to stop them. They said they wanted to destroy us; might as well protect what we got."

I just nodded. I didn't even know what we were arguing about anymore. Heero and Rasial were sitting on the couch the entire time, watching us argue. They both looked like two beautiful statues, not moving, just observing. Duo and I were the only live things in the room. And even then, I wasn't really alive either; I was like Heero and Rasial; I was undead. Then why do I still feel like I'm alive?

Didn't matter. A shaking rocked the house, and we all knew the source; they had come back.

Rasial and I rushed out of the house and started leaping through trees and on buildings to the center of the commotion. Duo and Heero stayed back to call everyone to the scene. Rasial said that the power was coming from Golden Gate Park, so we headed there first, and we were to hide until the others got there. At least, that was Heero's initial plan.

Of course, he didn't take into account that there were civilians walking around in the middle of the night in the park.

So when we got there, we watched in horror as a poor little girl and her puppy got smashed by a rather large piece of concrete. What a little girl was doing out so late walking her dog we'll never know, but I was certain about one thing: these bastards had to go down, and hard.

I leaped out to the top of a few rock structures. They saw me immediately and threw some fireballs at me. It was strange; all three of them were back to back, their robes flowing together so closely that you couldn't tell that they were three separate pieces of cloth. They looked like some strange three-faced machine.

I shed my overcoat and threw it to the ground. I summoned up my power fists again, and leapt into the fray, my hands aglow with energy. One of them, Remiel, swung at me with his sword. A flying boomerang of energy came at me, and I dodged out of the way. I took a deep breath and summoned the true power within; the power which had been given to me by Duo from his father, Shinigami. I could feel it bubbling at the surface of my skin, and I gave myself an extra push before blasting a few power-bombs into his face.

He blocked the attack, but a cloud of smoke appeared around him, giving me time to rush in to throw an energy ball into his chest. Remiel fell back towards the other two seraphim. They split up, and let him fall to the ground. I thought it was quite rude of them to let their comrade fall, but it only meant a higher chance of victory for our side.

Too preoccupied with watching Remiel fall, I barely got out of the way of Saraqael's spear. The blade cut through some of my hair. Damn, and I had just gotten it trimmed nice and even too.

Saraqael stared at me with his dark brown eyes, and reflected in them I saw someone coming from behind me. But it was too late. He was already within striking distance behind me. I braced myself for the impact.

A loud clanging sound brought my attention behind me. I looked behind me, and a shining power circle was glowing, blocking Raguel's attack.

A quick glance downwards told me who had arrived. Dorothy had her staff out, a power circle surrounding her, her hair wafting around in all directions, swirling around her like a cloak. Relena wasn't anywhere to be seen, so I assumed she stayed behind.

"HEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAH!"

The battle cry came from the ground, and I watched Catherine leap up towards me, her translucent wings spreading out as she punched Raguel's lights out. He fell to the ground, where Trowa and Quatre proceeded to pound on him.

Saraqael was obviously annoyed by our presence. "Even if you have defeated my weaker comrades, you will not defeat me." He wielded his spear, and charged me.

"Watch out!" Rasial's voice came to me a split second before he pummeled into me, knocking me out of the way of Saraqael's sharp spear. We landed not far away on a rock outcroppings in the Japanese tea garden. We both watched as Iria cast a light screen, blinding Saraqael, and lighting up the area for a few miles. It was so bright that Rasial and I turned our backs on the light and shut our eyes tightly.

"Great, we didn't want to cause more commotion," I muttered.  
"Well, after all this chaos, you'd think someone would notice, regardless."  
"True... but did she have to light up the sky like that? I swear, it was daylight for a few moments."

Rasial just shrugged. We both turned back to look after the light subsided. A figure flew into the sky, sword in hand. Rasial and I leapt back towards the fray to help. The figure turned out to be Wufei, taking advantage of Saraqael's blindness. His silver sword gleamed in the light of the city skyscrapers in the background as it came down for a final blow to the forehead. It was a very dramatic scene. Wish I had my camera.

And then Saraqael gracefully twisted out of the way and shoved the butt of his spear into Wufei's stomach. Wufei didn't have a chance as the wind was knocked out of him. Then Saraqael twirled his spear around and did an overhead chop and sent Wufei spiraling towards the ground. I raced to catch him.

Suddenly he did a somersault and landed on his feet on the ground. I was relieved that I didn't have to save him and suffer one of his "I can take care of myself" glares.

The sound of tearing flesh caught my attention. Sally must have snuck up behind Saraqael while Wufei was charging and sliced into two of his wings with her laser sword. That sword was made of pure energy, created from Sally's power. Man, wish I could do that.

Saraqael fell to the ground, just as Remiel flew back up to slice at her. Sally turned around just in time to see Wufei slam into him.

"Nobody touches my onna except me!"

How... chivalrous. But I'm sure Sally is grateful.

I looked back towards where Raguel was. Or should I say, had been. Trowa and Quatre looked worse for wear, and they had a bunch of feathers in their hands. There was a dead corpse lying between them. Yes, I think they beat him.

As for Duo and Heero, they were no where to be found. I was slightly annoyed; I thought they would have been the first to arrive. I flew down to where Saraqael had fallen. He looked dead.

Then his arms moved. Of course he wouldn't be dead, he's a seraph. He stood up, and glared at me. I rushed in for a quick kill.

But before I could even get a shot in, two quick flashes of movement dashed before me, and Saraqael fell dead at my feet.

"Looks like we got here just in time," Duo said. Heero just nodded.

"Dammit Duo, that was going to be my kill," I complained.  
"Well, you're too slow. You should've just shot him."  
"Grrr... I was GETTING to that."  
"Right."

I just sighed and walked away. Two of the seraphim were dead. And watching Wufei beat on Remiel, the score was probably going to be us three, seraphim zero.

Wufei made a few strange gestures with his hands, chanted something, and blew Remiel to the afterlife with a large blue blast of energy. Then he fell over.

"Wufei!" Sally flew over to him, and supported him as they left the area. "See you guys later," Sally called back over her shoulder as she flew him away. Catherine and Iria's shirts and jeans were torn, and blood stains gave their outfits brownish spots. They hobbled over to where Dorthy was kneeling, leaning against her staff for support. They all hopped into Dorothy's car and drove off, waving goodbye tiredly.

Trowa and Quatre supported each other as they walked over to us. We exchanged a few words of congratulations, and assured each other that we would be alright. Then they went to Quatre's car and Quatre waved goodbye as they drove off.

Duo and Heero looked at Rasial and I.

"You staying, or are you going back?", Duo asked.  
"We're probably going back," I replied.  
"Alright, but you know you're welcome at our house at any time... just call first. You probably don't want to walk in on us when we're... you know."  
I laughed. "Yeah, I know."

Duo and Heero waved farewell, and hopped into Duo's jeep, driving off like a speed demon. I turned to Rasial. "Well, shall we go home then?"

We got home, and I did some paper work until I decided I was tired enough to go to bed. Which wasn't long, considering the battle I had just gone through.

A call in the middle of my nap woke me up. It wasn't really a phone call, it was actually a telepathic call.

~Hilde!~

"Relena?"

~Yeah, it's me. You were hard to find. Anyways, I think there will be another seraph appearing near the I-280/US 101 junction sometime tonight. You and Rasial are closest to there, because the cave with the portal to your world is near there.~

"Oh, alright. Do you know exactly when this will happen?"

~Not exactly. Probably late night. At least, that's what my vision told me. Listen, I can't chat for long, it takes a lot of energy to keep up a link with someone in another dimension. So, are you going to fight it alone, or should I tell the others?~

"How many seraphim will there be?"

~Just one.~

"Alright, I'll go with Rasial. Don't bother contacting everyone else, they all have their problems to deal with."

~Okay. Goodbye.~

And with that I lost the connection. Sometime tonight... since it was always nighttime in the Shadow Lands, I had to figure out what time it was in the Upper Grounds. I got out of bed and booted up my laptop.

6:56 PM.

Goddammit. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and called for Rasial. We had to seraph exterminating to do.

We stood on a hill overlooking the I-280/US 101 junction. Rasial was dressed in black tight fitting t-shirt, black jeans, and a dark blue trenchcoat. He was going for the Matrix look today. As for me, I was wearing a dark green long-sleeved shirt with some slick dark blue slacks and a long, flowing black jacket. I can't really call it a trenchcoat, because it was really lightweighted. But that's what it looked like.

We watched the car lights drive to and fro in the junction, waiting for Relena's prediction to come true.

"Are you sure Relena's vision was any good?", Rasial asked me with an incredulous tone.  
"As far as I know, she's never been wrong."  
"Oh, great. Well, always a first time for everything."

I just glared at him for a few moments before staring back out at the red and white lights. For once, I hoped Relena was wrong about her prediction. If the junction gets smashed, a lot of people will die.

Then a light came from above, parting the sparse clouds. A single seraph came down, wielding a black sword of some kind. From here, it looked like a thick-bladed katana. He looked ethnically Japanese, and the fact that he was wearing a battle kimono and hakama kind of gave away that fact. [1] He was close enough that I could pick out the stylized black swan on the back of his kimono. Or a goose, but I'm pretty sure it was a swan. Geese just didn't have that sense of regality that a swan has. No offense against the geese of the world.

His back was to us and he obviously didn't notice us at first. That is, until I threw a powerball at his back. He glanced back, and pulled out his sword. He cut my attack into two, and they flew harmlessly past him into the night.

"Kuso," I said under my breath. Funny how the most memorable words of a foreign language are the cuss words. Now the seraph had his full attention on Rasial and me. This just wasn't my day.

"Who dares to attack me behind my back! That is dishonorable."

I decided to speak up, since Rasial sure as hell wasn't. "Tell us who you are first!"  
"I am Uriel. I am here to finish what the three fools did not."

By fools I assumed he was talking about Raguel, Remiel and Saraqael. I wonder how he knew that they did not finish their mission.

"And now, I shall destroy this star point. Do not attempt to stop me again."

"Like hell I'm not!" I made a move to jump at him, but a sudden movement to my right distracted me. I felt a sharp blow to my neck and then all was black.

When I came to, I was alone. The first thing my mind registered was the throbbing pain at the back of my neck. Stupid Rasial, why the hell did he do that? It's not like he has the power to fight him single-handedly, he's only been a vampire for 40 years.

But the thing that happened next blew that thought into the sky.

Rasial's power came over me like a flood, nearly plowing me over. The sheer energy that was coming from the general direction of the junction was immense. I looked out towards the source of the power. Rasial had his glowing sword out, clashing against Uriel's black katana. I gathered my wits and power and flew out to the battle.

It would seem that I woke up a bit too late. I watched as Rasial lay a final blow to Uriel, striking him across the neck. I saw it from a little ways away, so I just saw him swing his sword, and moments later, the head of Uriel fell off and dropped to the ground below. I bet someone down there was in for a bloody surprise.

The body hung in the air for a few moments, held aloft by the sudden outburst of magical energy leaving his body. The energy spread out the moment his head had been chopped off. The stuff that spilled from his severed neck seemed too dark to be blood. Maybe it just seemed like that because it was too dark to see clearly. I got within smelling distance by the time Uriel's body had fallen to the ground. The air smelt slightly metallic, the smell of pints of blood spilling into the night sky.

As I approached Rasial, he made his sword dissipate and turned to face me. In the moonlight he seemed ominous looking, with the glistening wetness of Uriel's blood covering his clothes.

"You're way older than 40, aren't you?"

Rasial just gave me one of his mysterious smiles, which I couldn't decipher for the life of me.

* * *

[1]: Hakama : A Japanese garment traditionally worn by men and looks GOOD. ^_^


	5. Chapter 5

Well, I decided to provide you all with some nice background info on Rasial's life. But not too much. Eh heh...  
~blah~ = Telepathy. I forgot to mention that before... ^_^;;  
_blah_ = Thoughts (me like italics... ^_^)

WARNINGS: There is some violence, a bit of angst/mention of suicide, strong language and it has the yaoi pairings of Duo+Heero, and Quatre+Trowa, and the yuri pairings of Dorothy+Relena and Catherine+Iria. So if you don't like yaoi or yuri pairings, then don't read this! This also has a completely new and original character, so don't take him, he's mine! ^_~

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 5**  
**By: Top Ace**

**

* * *

**"Why the HELL didn't you tell me you were frickin' 400 years old? 40 years old my ass..."

I was pretty pissed off. Here, a vampire of immense power who was probably at Master level, was calling ME mistress. Why did Rasial have to make everything so damn difficult? Hell, he was the epitome of difficulty. Or maybe I was just overreacting, and the stress of the situation was getting to me. Nah. I'm right, I'm always right.

"You're being pretty bitchy, Lady Hilde."  
"And you have a keen sense of the obvious."  
"I'll tell you about myself, if you promise me one thing."  
"And what might that be?"  
"Don't tell anyone anything of what I'm about to tell you."

I thought about it for a moment. I didn't think there was any harm in that. "Fine. Now talk."

"Yes, I'm about 400 years old. I was 20 when I was... changed. I was changed by a rogue vampire, who didn't really care about my welfare. So for 80 years I wandered around Europe, until I..."

He paused. I watched his eyes harden to cold stone.

"... I was 'captured' by Serah, a master vampire."  
"Captured?"  
"Yeah. I was practically a slave to her."

His eyes shimmered with anger. All of a sudden I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was frightened for my welfare. I thought that if he resented being commanded, then...

"Don't worry," he said softly, "I don't feel like a slave when I'm with you."  
"Oh. Did it show on my face?"  
"Yeah."  
"Oh." Vampires usually don't show emotion on their face; however, I've been a vampire for less than a year. I still have an excuse to show emotion.

"So anyways, she dragged me into the Shadow Lands and ruled my life for about 250 years. It was my own personal hell. And she wouldn't even let me kill myself either."

I felt really bad for the poor guy. I reached out to touch his cheek. He leaned into my hand and kissed it gently. He turned his eyes towards me, and I felt myself drawn to those emerald depths, feeling like I was metaphysically drowning. I finally realized the true extent of his power, since he came very close to rolling my mind. But he stopped before he went too far.

"You could fight me off, you know."  
"I can't."  
"You can. You have the power."  
"No, I don't."  
"Yes, you do. Remember, you have half of Shinigami's power. Use it!"  
"I..."

I didn't want to admit that I didn't know how to use it. I could tap into a small part of the power, but the vast majority of the power that I got from Shinigami remained untouched. I just trailed off, since I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Never mind," he said. "So about 50 years ago, Shinigami came in and defeated Serah, for which I was really grateful. He was kind and good to me." He paused, looking thoughtfully for a moment before looking at me. "I owed him, and I became Shinigami's right hand man as a thanks for saving me from an eternity of slavery. He was very good to me..." He trailed off. From the slightly wistful look in his eyes, I thought he...

"Maybe I was. Love is a very complicated emotion." He looked at me, and that wistful look was back in his eyes, but this time, they were directed at me.

I blinked, and I left the room. No way in hell was I going to deal with emotions at this point in time. I had more important things to deal with.

Sleep is wonderful. The fact that I can dream and not have to think about the things that plague me while I'm awake is enough to calm my nerves after that talk with Rasial. What's scary is that I'm supposed to be the stronger of us two. This was like being a lion tamer. The lion will obey as long as it doesn't realize that it can rip your throat out with one bite. I didn't know how much longer I could keep Rasial in the dark about me not being able to tap into Shinigami's power. If he knew that, he might just kill me and take control of the Shadow Lands himself. Rasial didn't seem like the kind of guy who would do that, but he's already nearly rolled my mind twice. I don't know if he's truly a friend, or just biding his time.

But for now, I dream. I dream about life before death, before I changed, and before things around me got chaotic. Life was good.

However, no matter how much I will it, I have to wake up eventually. Or else I know that my problems will follow me into my sleep.

~Hilde!~  
"Huh? Quatre?"  
~Yeah. Duo says to get up here, now. Something's happening.~

The connection broke, and I got up grudgingly. Why did something have to happen now? I quickly pulled on a blue tank top and some jeans. I grabbed a white button-up short-sleeved shirt to use as a light jacket as I ran out of my room.

"Going somewhere?", Rasial asked as I ran past him down the stairs.  
"Duo says they need me."  
"Oh. I'll catch up."

I didn't even bother grunting a response as I flew out the door and headed as fast as I could to the portal connecting the Shadow Lands and the Upper Grounds.

"Relena says there are going to be three more seraphim coming. But she doesn't know where," Duo said to me.

"Oh. Well, can't she find out? I mean, she found out last time..." I trailed off, not sure if I should be talking about the last seraph that Rasial killed.

Duo smiled. "Oh, she told us about that. She couldn't tell us exactly what happened, but she did say that you and Rasial took care of it."

"Oh." I seemed to be saying that a lot lately. Maybe I just ran out of sarcastic comments. "So, should we be spreading out to watch the city or something? Feels kinda odd just sitting here waiting for them to come."

"The guys have already fanned out. It's just you and me for now."

I raised an eyebrow. I found it strange that Heero had left without him, or that Duo would let Heero go out alone. "Why did you let Heero go?"

"He's just scouting the area around the house. He'll be back in a few minutes. Where's Rasial?"

"Right here."

I jumped three feet away from him. He had appeared behind me in the doorway without me even noticing. Duo, on the other hand, hadn't even blinked.

"Nice to see ya, Raz."  
"It's good to see you too, Lord Duo."  
"Takin' good care of Hilde?"  
"Yes, very."

I swallowed my urge to rebut his statement. I didn't really have the time to argue with a 400 year old vampire. "Alright, let's just go and find the seraphim," I said instead.

Heero came back just as I had said that. He looked at all of us, then nodded. We all wordlessly followed him outside.

Heero led us to Golden Gate Park, where Quatre, Trowa and Wufei were facing off with the enemy. There were three new seraphim, and they looked fierce. All three were wearing outfits that seemed like Roman gladiator outfits. It seems that we came just in time for introductions.

"I am Michael." He was wearing a purple cape and a white roman gladiator outfit. He was brandishing a vampire sword. No, it wasn't a sword used or made by vampires. It was just that style of sword. I studied weapons when I was in high school, that's why I know. I wondered inanely why I remembered these things and not the trigonometry.

"I am Gabriel." He was wearing a black roman gladiator outfit and a dark red cape that was on his shoulder, much like how Treize used to wear his cape. He had a large Italian axe with an elongated handle, with two smaller axes on his belt.

"I am Raphael." He was wearing a green cape and a white roman gladiator outfit with a black leather vest over a white tunic. He had an English partizan, a rather peculiar looking sword.

They all pulled their weapons out simultaneously and pointed them at us. "We will destroy the plague of humanity that has tarnished this once lush world."

And to think I thought that they couldn't get any cheesier.

"Enough of this. We fight!" Michael yelled as he charged towards Rasial and me. I didn't take the time to pay attention to what was going on around me. It was just me and him. A battle, mano a mano. Damn, my Spanish is bad.

He leaped into the air and spread his black wings. And as with the rest of them, he had three wings. I leapt into the air after him, using my power to levitate. He had better control than I did, and I knew that I would have to get him to the ground so I would at least be on an even level with him. My heart beat like a taiko drum; it rang loudly in my ears and kept me from concentrating on the fight. I didn't realize how high I had flown to follow this guy. Don't look down, don't look down.

I stopped flying. He stopped about ten feet above me and looked down.

"What, afraid of heights?", he said mockingly.  
"No."

He started to drop from the sky, right to my eye level. "I am not that foolish." He struck out at me with a sword that appeared from under his cape, as if he had pulled it out of the air.

I flew back, but my reaction wasn't quick enough. A sharp pain flew across my chest, and I knew that he had cut me rather deeply. I didn't have time to take a good look because I was too busy trying to dodge his attacks. Michael's sword came within a width of a hair to cutting my skin on more than one occasion. That was too close for comfort for me. This fight seemed to be culminating to my downfall, or so it seemed. I didn't have a weapon and levitating used up more energy than I had. I decided to drop to the ground and let him come to me.

I stood on terra firma, grateful that I had held out for this long. This was the first time that I had been in an elongated fight like this. The first war against Morbius was nothing like this. Those fights were quick, bloody, violent, and usually ended up in the tearing up of someone's body.

I kept an eye on Michael, who was up in the sky watching me. He floated down and stood across from me. Even with all the commotion going around me, I felt my world narrow down to just him and me. I watched his chest rise and fall, and I could hear his heart beat in my ears. Thump thump, thump thump. We stared each other down, and then he sneered at me.

"You are not a worthy opponent."  
"You're just upset because I won't fight you in the air."  
"You are unable to fight in the air because you are weak."  
"You complain too much."

I think he got tired of all this bantering, because he charged me again. I drew my fists together, trying to summon something, a ball of energy, a spirit sword, anything.

Nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing. I was NOT happy.

The sword came towards me at lightning speed. I didn't even have time to think before I felt the blade plunge into my side. My blood spilled all over my shirt, and I heard the cloth tear as he pulled out his sword, laughing as I fell to the ground. I didn't even get a chance to feel the ground. I think I passed out before that.

"Help me..."

It was that same dream with the girl with pigtails. She was calling out, her voice strained from the effort.

"Please, help me..."

I reached out to her, but then her image screamed and vanished into thin air.

I decided that it was a good time to wake up, so I did. Initially it was a good idea, however, I didn't take into account that my side had been shredded to so much meat thanks to a particular three winged seraph.

"Damn that Michael," I said in a hoarse whisper.

Next to me, a warm presence moved slightly. I looked over to find Rasial lying next to me, bandages around parts of his body and a small bandage on his cheek. I reached out and ripped it off.

"YEOWCH! Ow, that hurt! What's your problem?"

I giggled, but my giggle turned into a gasp when a sharp pain exploded through my side.

"Lady Hilde!" He got up immediately and straddled me, but not touching me. I suddenly seemed small underneath his average frame. He put a hand on my side, gently touching it. I let out a small cry. I had never been this weak before. For the first time since I had gained my vampiric powers, I was well and truly scared. What happens to vampires when they die? Do they still have souls, or are their souls lost when they die the first time? I didn't want to die; I still had things to take care of in this life, er, pseudo-life.

I took a deep breath, letting it out shakily as I tried to regain my composure. Thinking about death wasn't helping things. The seraphim... when all else fails, concentrate on business.

"What happened after I passed out?"

Rasial sighed. I raised an eyebrow. I got the feeling I would be in for a not-so-good story.

"Well... we lost. Golden Gate Park is no more."  
"WHAT?"

"After you passed out, Michael started rampaging around and destroyed half the park. You know, the others weren't doing so well against the other two. Raphael, he pretty much knocked out Trowa, pounded on Quatre, and nearly split Wufei with his damn partizan. And then Gabriel... he actually beat out Duo."

"He... he did?" I couldn't imagine anyone actually beating Duo. He and Heero were unstoppable. I remembered their fight against Morbius. They weren't that weak. "That... that's not possible..."

"It is when your significant half is distracted and not there to help you."  
"Eh?"  
"When Michael had stabbed you, he went to fight Heero, so Gabriel had a chance against Duo. These new seraphim are tough, Lady Hilde."  
"So where were YOU the whole time?"  
"I had to bail out Wufei, Quatre and Trowa. They were about to be turned into mincemeat before I stepped in to stop Raphael."  
"Oh. So what happened to Heero and Duo?"  
"Michael beat Heero to the point of unconsciousness and left him for dead before ravaging the park. Duo sensed that and ran to help Heero, but got his back cut in the process. It was about that time we all decided to pull back."

I sighed. This was bad. If Heero and Duo, our two best fighters, couldn't stand up to them, and the rest of the guys were injured so badly... then what chance did the girls and I have?

It had been a whole week since the major attack. The news kept saying that mysterious assailants were destroying major landmarks during the night, but we knew the truth. It was much better to be ignorant. Like they say, ignorance is bliss.

My wound had healed quickly, but it was so deep that a scar remained. Usually a vampire doesn't scar unless the weapon had some silver in it. So I was guessing that the sword had a bit of silver. That would explain why I passed out so quickly afterwards. I could feel that my power had been cut in half because of the laceration, but I couldn't do anything about it. Having a large gash in your side would cut your power in half too.

Rasial took care of me for the first few days. I could barely move, let alone get out of bed. He fed me, took care of business, and was extremely gentle with me. When I slept, I could feel him wrapping his arms carefully around me, keeping me warm and safe while I dreamed. What a nice guy.

Then I remembered he was 400 years old. I kept my wits about me, making sure he wasn't just trying to sucker me into giving him the Shadow Lands.

Then I got a call from Relena. Not a telephone call, one of those mental calls.

~Hilde!~  
"Hm?"  
~The seraphim are coming again.~  
"Great..."  
~Meet us at Duo's house. We're all going to fight this time.~

I just nodded. Rasial looked at me as I was doing it.

"Why did you just nod?"  
"Relena called."  
"Seraphim?"  
"Seraphim."

We headed for Duo's house again.

Once again, we were at Duo's house, but this time everyone was here. When we had arrived, everyone was crowded around the table. Relena was sitting at the head. She was held a swinging pendant over a map of San Francisco, while Quatre and Iria held their hands over hers. A black feather was sticking out between their fingers. [1]

"Got it!"

Relena stood up and pointed at the map. "Look, right there. Fisherman's wharf. That's where they'll be."

Duo nodded. "Alright. Relena, stay here and keep safe. I'd ask you to come but..."

"Say no more, Duo, I understand," Relena said. "I wouldn't do much on the battle field. Just do your best."

Everyone nodded, and we headed for our cars. As Duo, Heero, Rasial and I piled into Duo's jeep, Rasial tugged on my jacket.

"You sure you're okay?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Besides," I said with determination, "I want revenge..."

* * *

[1]: This is kinda like that scene in Escaflowne where Hitomi, Allen and Merle are all looking for Van in one of the earlier episodes.

Okay, here's their weapons:  
Vampire Sword  
Italian Axe  
English Partizan


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry it's taken me so long... I'll keep working on it, I promise. Now continuing on...  
~blah~ = Telepathy.  
_blah_ = Thoughts (I like italics... ^_^)

WARNINGS: There's a slight rape warning for this section. There is some violence, strong language and it has the yaoi pairings of Duo+Heero, and Quatre+Trowa, and the yuri pairings of Dorothy+Relena and Catherine+Iria. So if you don't like yaoi or yuri pairings, then don't read this! This also has a completely new and original character, so don't take him, he's mine! ^_~

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 6**  
**By: Top Ace**

* * *

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Whoever 'they' are, must be the epitome of human thinking. I wanted to rip out Michael's heart and stomp on it. Or maybe just stick a knife in it. Whatever.

We drove up to Fisherman's Wharf. I vaguely remember being dragged here once. However, the details of that memory are vague and blurry. I don't remember much of that time. I haven't really had time to think about that. Eh.

We got out of our cars and wandered up and down the streets to an old shipping warehouse. It was in total disrepair and pieces of crates were strewn about the area. And apparently from the looks of the wall, the damage hadn't been done too long ago.

Quatre closed his eyes, then pointed upwards and shouted, "Watch out!"

Michael flew down from the rafters, his sword out and ready for slicing into us. He flew through our coterie and slashed left and right, getting who he could. I dodged out of the way, pushing Catherine with me, while Rasial pushed Dorothy out of the way. Sally leaped quickly out of the sword's reach, taking Wufei with her. Wufei seemed a bit out of it lately. Meanwhile, Trowa had grabbed Quatre and leaped away. Iria wasn't so lucky, however. I saw crimson spill onto her white shirt as she screamed in pain. Catherine leaped out from underneath me and went to her.

"Iria!"

I moved instinctively, throwing a powerball in the general direction of Catherine's retreating back, to ward off any attacks behind her. Michael was coming upon them with his sword out, ready to slay the two women. I couldn't let that happen, not while I still had a score to settle.

My powerball missed and I moved to ram him out of the way, but Rasial stopped me. I watched as my attack blew out another hole in the wall, and Michael's sword swung down...

...Only to be stopped by Duo's scythe. Duo and Heero had recovered rather quickly, through some practice I didn't know of (or really care to know of, knowing those two) and were nearly as strong as ever. Michael leapt back and flew up to the rafters, looking down on us. Then he crossed his arms and muttered something.

Suddenly, he spilt into three, then each of them split again. There were 9 Michaels now, circling us and attacking us with swift strikes. On all of us, cuts and slashes were appearing on our bodies without any warning. All of us went back to back, forming a circle facing the enemy, or should I say enemies, that were circling us so quickly that their movement was blurred.

They continued crisscrossing in front of us, swords slashing every which way. Things were getting hectic, and I knew that if we didn't find the real Michael soon, we'd be chopped liver.

I glanced over to see Trowa, Duo, Wufei, and Heero all circled around Quatre. They all faced the outside, warding off any blows to Quatre, or just plain taking the blows. But they stood their ground to protect him. I didn't know why, and at this point, I wish they would just hurry up. One of the Michaels came to attack Duo, and I moved forward, punching him out of the way. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the other Michaels wavered slightly.

Rasial must have noticed it too, because he yelled, "Everyone! Attack that one!"

Sally and Catherine moved forward to help. Dorothy was keeping a shield up over her and Iria. The boys were still in that circle formation... what were they doing, and why did it take them so long?

So Rasial, Sally, Catherine, and I all attacked the Michael that had tried to attack Duo. With every hit we landed, the other Michaels flickered more and more. We knew that all it took was one super hit and this guy would be down for the count. But with all the attacks we were throwing at this guy, we were going to be out of energy for a large hit pretty soon.

"Quick, let's all focus," I shouted. I counted to five in my head, and shot another powerball towards Michael's head. He ducked, and pushed out with his elbow to gut me in the stomach. I flew back a little, but with that little diversion the other three were able to get a good shot in. His shoulder pretty much exploded with the impact of their powerballs; however, it wasn't enough. Michael jumped back up to the rafters and stared down at us, the hatred so readily apparent in his eyes. He wanted us dead, or at least severely mangled.

I watched as the skin and flesh on his shoulder regenerated, flowing back to perfection. I thought the bad guys weren't allowed to regenerate. I looked at Rasial, Sally, and Catherine. The girls were tired, and I was pretty sure they couldn't summon enough energy for another mass attack. As for Rasial... I guess he looked okay. I couldn't really tell any more. Why wasn't he busting out his sword and hacking Michael up into little bits? Why wasn't he using that awesome power that he used against Uriel?

A bright light coming from the boys caught my attention before I could think about anything else. The four guys surrounding Quatre were sharing their energy with him, feeding it to him. Then Quatre opened his eyes like in those dramatic scenes when something really important happens. Which, in this case, was fitting. He jumped up into the air, and a glowing ball of rainbow goodness shot out from his hands. It was aimed right at Michael, and he seemed slightly frightened by the shiny thing. He couldn't stand up to that much power, I thought. We had won!

Of course, the books never say anything about the enemy dodging out of the way. Weren't they supposed to take the last resort hit and die?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Michael skip off the rafter and run out the back way. I chased after him, and only caught up enough to see him jump into the air and spread his wings. He flew off into the night, and we were too tired to chase him. I threw a 2 by 4 against the wall.

"Dammit!"

I felt someone's hand on my shoulder.

"It's alright," Rasial said. "We'll get him next time."

I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything at all.

Iria had to be hospitalized. Catherine stayed by her side the whole time, holding her hand and doing the "caring significant other" act. Well, it probably wasn't an act, but she was still doing it. We all came to visit on occasion, especially Quatre. But other than the visits to the hospital, I really didn't get out of the house much. Things in the Shadow Lands were keeping me tied to the desk, so to speak.

And speaking of being tied to the desk, I caught Rasial looking at me as if he wanted to do that. I'm not sure if he wants to tie me to the desk and screw me silly, or tie me to the desk and keep me there while he takes over the Shadow Lands. Or both. Maybe I'm just imagining things... I hope. But given the fact that he lied to me once already, he'll probably do it again. Nowadays, I only trust as far as I can throw him. Wait, that's not a good analogy given me current strength as a vampire... but you get the picture...

Things began to wind down, as Relena and Quatre couldn't sense Michael anywhere. Even Dorothy, using her abilities as a sorceress/witch couldn't forsee anything happening. It was quiet... and as they say, too quiet.

It had already been two weeks. Way too long for no action to be occuring. I was just thinking this as Rasial walked into my room.

"I can give you some action," he said with a slight leer and a smirk on his face.  
"Can it, I'm not thinking about THAT kind of action."  
"How can I can my affections for you? Emotions can't be canned, you know."

I just sighed. I didn't have the energy to put up with him today. Usually I welcome his teasing as an escape from work, but lately... I don't know, maybe I'm getting too serious. I need to lighten up.

In a sudden flash of movement, Rasial picked me up from my desk and whisked me to my room. He lay me down on the bed and straddled me, pushing his body against mine. His warmth, his power flowed through me, and I both relaxed and tensed at the same time. I felt relaxed because it felt really nice and soothing, tensed because I didn't know what he was going to do next.

"Just trust me," he whispered in my ear. I could feel his lips moving against my skin, and I shuddered. I didn't know if it was because it felt good, or because I was frightened.

He growled quietly, and then I felt his hands moving towards my pants. I started pushing him off, but he kept his legs wrapped around me, preventing me from moving too much. He lifted my shirt up and started nuzzling me inbetween my breasts. I gasped, and I started to move with him. It had been such a long time since I felt the touch of a lover...

Rasial looked up at me, his green eyes full of... full of something. I couldn't quite tell. He slid his body off of me, but kept his legs around me. His hand reached under the line of my pants, and he pressed against me. I could feel my panties getting wetter as he stroked and petted me. I could just give in to him, I could just let myself go and get some action tonight. His hand came back out from within my pants and stroked my stomach, up my breasts to my shoulder. He hopped back on top of me and got up to his knees, barely touching me except for his hands on my shoulders.

"Hilde... I want you."

That's all he said before he ripped my shirt off me in one violent motion. He pushed his body against mine, and I could feel his hardness digging into my thigh. He wasn't kidding this time, he really wanted some. He started tearing open my pants, and this time I really struggled to get away. But he pulled me back down, and leapt on me like a lion pouncing on his prey.

"You're not getting away... It's been too long since I've had a pretty woman in my arms."

I looked into his eyes and saw that he didn't really want to hurt me, but he wouldn't mind risking a little bit of my skin to get a good fuck. I glared at him. He chuckled.

"You're so cute when you're angry."

He nuzzled my neck, and bit down with his vampire fangs. I screamed, and pushed him away, his fangs tearing my skin a little bit. I crawled off the bed and started backing up towards the door. I felt my blood run down my neck, and I saw the hunger in him, the way he moved and the way he watched me as if I was a piece of meat for him to play with and eat. I think now would be a good time for my supposed powers to emerge...

He leaped and tackled me, pushing me to the ground, grinding himself against me. Now I wasn't just frightened; I was scared. I struggled against him, but at this point I felt that it was all but hopeless. I stared at him, and watched the pleasure in his eyes as he started licking the blood that had flowed down my neck and my shoulder. He licked it all slowly, staring up at me and watching for my reaction. I admit that it felt really good, but I wasn't about to give in completely.

Then I heard his pants unzip. That dim light of hope, that light that only existed because I thought that Rasial would lay off by now, went out. I screamed.

Suddenly a warm light surrounded me, and I felt like I was being embraced by the angels. Rasial screamed and was thrown into the opposite wall, falling face first onto my bed. I don't know what threw him, but I was glad. I stopped glowing after a while, and Rasial finally got up.

"See, the power was in you the whole time."

I glared at him. "You mean you did all that just to piss me off and get me to use some power that I don't have?"

"Pretty much."

I chased him out of my room.

"GET OUT!" I screamed while I threw a few pillows at him.

"My apologies, lady Hilde," he said through the door. "You may punish me as you wish."

I heard his steps echo through the hall as he walked away. I didn't know if I should kill him, or torture him and then kill him.

That night, I had a dream. More like a continuation of the same dream that I've had on and off ever since this whole seraphim thing began.

~_Help..._~

It was the girl with the pigtails again. Why was she crucified? Why was she asking for help? And why did this area seem slightly familiar?

~_Sutro Tower..._~

I knew that place. But why was she...

I woke up before anything else could be said or seen in my dream. I decided to go to the place in my dream. Hopefully I could sneak out without Rasial noticing. I got dressed quickly and slowly opened my window. I glided outside, and then I ran for it.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who had the dream, because everyone else was there too. Duo, Heero, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Sally, Dorothy and Relena were all here. Wufei looked even more paranoid than usual.

"Lemme guess," I said, "You all had the same dream with the girl with the pigtails?"

Everyone nodded.

"That girl is Meiran," Sally said in a calm voice. She glanced over at Wufei before continuing. "She's... Wufei's late first wife."

They all must have known, because the only gasp of surprise I heard was my own. I didn't know Wufei had a wife... he must have been about 14... wow. No wonder he's got that inferiority complex. [1]

I looked up at the tower and saw nothing. No girl, no lightning, no evil shadows. Just a calm night under the stars. However, given our current luck, this was probably just the calm before the storm. I looked at everyone else. They all seemed a bit fidgety, except for Heero and Trowa. They were always calm and stiff like statues. I decided to just kneel down on the ground and wait for whatever might come.

We all got more than we bargained for. A wind swept up, strong enough that most of us had to cover our eyes. When the wind went away, a figure had appeared on the tower, and looked to have their arms out like they were being crucified...

Wufei recognized the figure immediately. "MEIRAN!"

He leapt up to the tower, bounding off the pillars to try to get to her. The rest of us followed him, to make sure he didn't do anything reckless. Well, that was why I was following him. People do strange things when it's for the ones they love. We made it up to the top of the tower, and now I could see clearly the girl from my dreams. She looked like she had been up there for a long time. Her face was pale, her body frail, and strands of her hair was plastered over her face. She looked like an abused China doll.

Meiran slowly lifted her head up as we came closer. Wufei was by her side, tentatively reaching out to touch her. She smiled softly.

"Wufei... you came..."

I guess her cry for help reached all of us, because it seemed as if she was calling to him and him alone. I was wondering why in my dream she wasn't speaking to me directly. I watched as Wufei slowly inched his way towards her, and then put his arm around her, stroking her and being oh so gentle. I've never seen him like this before, even with Sally. I looked over at her, expecting to see at least a little jealousy, but all I saw in Sally's face was a deep sorrow for her husband. She must know the whole story behind all of this. I'll have to ask her someday.

"How touching."

That voice, those two words that were so filled with hatred and mockery, made my spine tingle. It was a deep voice, but with enough of a baritone pitch to it that it may have sounded sexy if he had used it in a different tone. We all looked up to the source of that voice. He had a black cloak on, with a black body suit covering him. He had black boots, black gloves, and three black wings, just like the seraphim. However, I got the feeling that this guy was the big kahuna, the boss. Looking up at his face, I could see an evil sneer that he must have practiced over and over again, and a spider tatoo on his cheek. It was a spiral with eight legs coming from it, so I'm pretty sure it was a spider. His eyes appeared black, but with the moonlight being ever so strong tonight, and me being a vampire, I could see that there was a hint of redness to his eyes, like a demon. His hair was a deep blood red, shoulder length, and very messy from the looks of it. This stranger was standing on on of the pillars, not holding on to anything. He apparently had the mad balancing skills. [2]

The sound of flapping wings turned my attention to the right. Michael had arrived to partake in the gathering. He smirked at us and shouted, "So, how does it feel to be losers?"

I glared at him, as did the rest of us. Especially Wufei.

Michael hopped over to stand next to the new guy. "Master Lucifer, why don't we show these humans our true power?"

Lucifer? This was too weird.

The aforementioned 'bad guy' patted Michael on the back in a comrade-like gesture. "We? Who said anything about we?" With those words he thrust his hand into Michael's back, his hand coming out his chest. We could see the shock in Michael's eyes before Lucifer let his dead body fall from his hands like so much garbage. The blood on his hand glistened in the moonlight.

Then he turned to us. "Well well well, looks like I surprised you, didn't I? Behold, the event that will unfurl before you today!"

The winds started blowing, and Wufei was suddenly thrown off the tower, away from Meiran. Sally caught his arm, and pulled him back up. We all watched in horror as the dark seraphim shot bolts of lightning at Meiran's spirit, causing her to scream and writhe in agony. I didn't want to watch, but I kept watching anyways. Meiran seemed like a strong girl, and if she could be strong, then so could I. It would be dishonorable if I turned away.

Wufei was struggling to move, but Sally and Duo kept a hold on him.

"Let me go! I have to... have to help her..."

One last scream pierced the air, and suddenly Meiran's spirit form began fading from sight. Since she was a spirit, she was already slightly translucent, but now her form was really waning.

"Wufei... I..."

She disappeared in a flash, the particles of her being floating towards the sky.

Wufei screamed. "MEIRAN!"

Lucifer chuckled. "My my, I wonder; what was she about to say?"

I believe Wufei snapped at that point. He threw off Duo and Sally and leaped up the tower, bent on revenge. He lifted his hands into the air and started summoning... something.

"Mizuno... ryuu!" [3]

A large water dragon came from seemingly nowhere and headed straight for Lucifer's head. But all he did in defense was smirk. As it was about crash into him, a small force field surrounded him, and I could see energy crackle around him as he repelled the dragon. Wufei looked quite shocked.

"No..."

Lucifer gave a long, hearty laugh. "Sorry, no free shots today." He raised a hand towards Wufei, and shot several red lightning bolts at him. Wufei screamed as he was envoloped by a blanket of red. Sally moved to help him, but as she got close to Wufei, a bolt shot out from him and hit Sally square in the chest. Iria and I caught her as she started to fall.

"Don't come close, Sally!" Wufei yelled despite all the pain. "You'll only get hurt! Just get him!"

"You cannot possibly hope to reach me, if you cannot even reach him," Lucifer said as he laughed again, and then released his hold on Wufei. Wufei started to fall, but Duo caught a hold of him, putting his arms around him. Heero was nearby in a split second to make sure that Lucifer didn't try anything funny. The rest of us also kept an eye on him.

"My mission here is complete. Sayonara." With that, Lucifer leaped up into the air and blinked out of sight. We all glared at the spot where he had disappeared.

"Damn..." Wufei whispered before passing out.

The same thought ran through my mind as well. Damn.

* * *

[1]: My dad was e-mailed a joke from his friend and then told me the joke... basically, God and Eve are talking, and Eve is bored about being the Garden of Eden all by herself, just her and that silly snake. So God says, "I'll give you a man, who looks silly when he's aroused, likes to kick a ball around and likes to fight a lot. But I'll only give him to you on one condition." So Eve says, "What is that condition?" God says, "Since this man will be proud, self-admiring, and arrogant, you have to let him think that I created him first. You know, this will be our secret, woman to woman." So my dad replied to his friend, "It figures that God is a woman. Now I know where my inferiority complex comes from." Hehehe...  
[2]: Think about Seishirou from Tokyo Babylon...  
[3]: Well, for those of you who watch Magic Knight Rayearth... You know. And for those who don't, this means "Water Dragon." It's one of Umi's first spells in MKR.

Gomen nasai that it has taken me so long... eh heh... Ackem, I really didn't want to do that to poor Meiran...


	7. Chapter 7

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 7**

**By: Top Ace**

* * *

Wufei was crushed by the the turn of events that had ultimately led to the destruction of Meiran's spirit. But he was a tough guy; if anyone could pull through, it would be him. Sally was with him, giving him moral support. But other than that bit of knowledge, most of us hadn't a clue as to what was going on in the Chang household. I hope their kid was doing okay.

The rest of us were, well, stuck. Apparently something was supposed to happen, but Lucifer didn't leave us with many clues. In fact, I don't think he said much at all. And in the week that had passed since the meeting at Sutro Tower, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Maybe huge cataclysmic phenomenons occur after a certain amount of time or something. The only thing we could do now was sit tight and hope that maybe nothing would happen. That maybe, by some freak chance that the sacrifice of Meiran's spirit would do nothing to this world.

All we could do was wait and hope. [1]

A couple of weeks later, strange occurrences began to happen around the world, which was exactly the opposite of what I had hoped for. I was flipping channels on the television at Duo's house when suddenly a news flash special report came on.

"In Tokyo, Japan, Paris, France, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, New York, United States, and Auckland, New Zealand, an important landmark in each of those cities has fallen with no apparent reason. Strutural specialists around the world are wondering why this is happening. Geologists are pinpointing the problem as a strange and sudden shaking of the earth at each of those points, causing only the towers to suffer serious damage. Approximately nine hundred people have been killed or injured around the world so far in total, the most at the famous skyscraper in New York, the Empire State Building. The locations are as follows:

The Tashkent Tower - Tashkent, Uzbekistan Tokyo Tower - Tokyo, Japan Eifel Tower - Paris, France The Menara Tower - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia The Sky Tower - Auckland, New Zealand The Empire State Building - New York, United States

Geologists don't know when or where the next collapse will occur. If anyone lives near a tall tower or skyscraper, please stay alert. Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program."

Duo and Heero had shown up during the news bulletin. We all looked at each other. Then we all looked in the direction of Sutro Tower.

"I think I know where the next target will be..."

We all rushed towards the tower, bent on trying to clear everyone from the area. We had to save as many people as possible, but with as little commotion as possible. It's already been quite a task trying to convince news reporters and like to ignore the flying folks in the sky and the unknown lights and shiny things. However, that didn't really matter at the moment. As we felt the first quake under our feet, I had a sinking feeling that we would be too late.

Fortunately, there weren't many people there when we got there, and Relena was already asking people to leave due to "unknown foundation problems." Bless her for her excellent public skills.

As the crowds dispersed, the three of us walked towards her.

"Oh, hi you guys," Relena said. "Most of the people are leaving, and Dorothy is looking for any stragglers. Quatre and Trowa are on their way. And I'm not sure where Iria and Catherine are. Wait..." She paused for a few moments, and then continued, "Iria and Catherine are clearing the area in a three mile radius. We don't want anything to happen to the people."

"That's true," Duo said. We all looked around, and waited for... something. We weren't quite sure what we were looking or feeling for, and we weren't really sure what we were going to do after the tower started falling. Were we going to put it back up? Even with our increased strength, I wasn't sure we could hold up a crashing tower. Waiting seemed like a good option for now.

We didn't have to wait for long, however, before a slight rumble in the ground grew to monstrous proportions.

"It's falling!"

And sure enough, the tower where Meiran's spirit disappeared began crumbling to the ground. I quickly leapt out of the way, dodging bits of steel and concrete while trying to stay near enough so that just in case another seraph came...

The dust had settled. We looked around, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary except for the fact that Sutro Tower was nothing more than ash and rubble. At least no one was hurt.

"So... does anyone know what this means?" Duo asked to no one in particular.

Everyone who was nearby shrugged. I had no idea, but I knew one thing: we had to get outta here, and fast. The reporters and the authorities would be here soon, and to see us here would definitely be suspicious. It was best to leave the paper work to them. We all quickly bounded away from the crash site, promising to inform one another of any news that might show up.

Unfortunately, after that time I had to return to the Shadow Lands to work. Mostly just governing and any paperwork related to that. I say unfortunate not only because I couldn't help people on Earth, but because of something else. It wasn't the paperwork; no, that was easy to deal with. The unfortunate also comes from having to deal with Rasial. I didn't know how to face him anymore. Was I supposed to say, "Thanks for nearly raping me, now I know I have the power to kick your ass if I need to," or was I just supposed to forget that it ever happened?

Either way, the wonderful dynamic that had been built between us had crumbled like a dried sand castle in the wind. The way he smiled at me and the way he would touch my shoulder when I was working now had a double meaning to it. I wasn't sure if he would keep his word and leave me alone at night. I really just wanted to banish him to the far ends of the Shadow Lands, but I knew that if he really wanted to get me, a mere banishment wouldn't stop him. I decided to just tolerate his presence for now. Maybe I did it just out of respect for our now suspended friendship.

"What's wrong, Hilde?"  
"Nothing."  
"C'mon, tell me."  
"Rasial, there's nothing wrong."

He sighed. "Hilde, I know there's something wrong. You're so cold to me now."

I glared at him. "Well obviously."  
"It's because of what I did, isn't it?"  
"My, aren't you brilliant."  
"Hilde, I already apologized, what more do you want?"  
"Rasial, it's not that easy. It's a human thing."  
"But you're not human anymore."

I didn't say anything. I just turned around and walked away. He was right. And I hated him for that.

We pretty much avoided each other after that. Later on, I developed a habit of going out on long walks late at night. Or rather, when everyone else was asleep. In the Shadow Lands, it was always nighttime. A few days after Rasial and I had stopped talking to each other, I walked for who knows how long before I decided to just not go back. I leapt up to a nearby tree and settled myself down on a nice branch. I leaned against the trunk of the tree and fell asleep listening to the winds.

~When the angel awakens, a disaster shall befall the world, to those who sustain life through death...~

"Who's there?" I asked.

~When the angel awakens, a disaster shall befall the world, to those who sustain life through death...~

"I heard that already... who are you?"

~A disaster...~

"STOP!"

I was jolted awake when a weight near me shifted. I didn't think the trees here could move on their own. Once my mind registered that there wasn't any wind with which to move the branches, I came to the only conclusion: someone or something had found me. I immediately jumped to my feet and looked around. I slowly started walking towards the end of the branch and then turned around to face the person or thing who had the guts to sleep near me. On an adjacent branch, Rasial was reclining against the trunk of the tree, his face in the peaceful grasp of sleep. I was touched that he would come out this far to keep an eye on me, but then again, I had forgotten he was a sneaky, hormone-pumped vamp. I hopped out of the tree and traveled farther away.

I knew better than to go too far out into unmapped territory, but tonight my common sense had flown out the window. I kept running, flying, gliding away from the mansion, from the town, from him. Anywhere was better than being tortured by his presence. I admit, I still am fond of him, but it's like when your beloved pet dog attacks you one day. You're wary of him, but you still have that feeling that he's still your beloved pet dog. Not that Rasial was a dog or anything.

Christ on a bike.[2] I really wish I could get my feelings straight. So, do I hate him, do I like him, or do I just not care?

My thoughts wandered back to the dream. Angel? Could that angel have been Meiran? But she didn't awaken, she was... destroyed. Who could it be?

I didn't have much time to ponder that thought, because a rift in the Shadow Lands opened up before me. Or maybe it was there in the first place, I'm not too sure. All I know is that a portal, similar to the portal between the Upper Grounds and the Shadow Lands, appeared before me. I started panicking. What was a portal doing out here? Rasial had said they were portals only in secluded areas, such as caves or on a mountain. A portal out in the middle of nowhere, and a very flat, plains-type area at that, was just bizzare.

I walked around it, trying to see where it led to. Portals emit a soft light that reflects the light on the other side. So wherever this portal led to, it had a nice, bright, yellow light. Much like Earth, except... there was something unholy about it. The light seemed like it was fake, a pseudo-light.

"What the hell is that?"

I spun around to see Rasial gaping at the portal. "What... why?" he continued to say in an astonished tone.

"You're asking the wrong person," I said maliciously.

"This is no time to be pissed off, Hilde," he said. I noticed that he didn't use any respectful titles this time. "Portals don't just spring up out of nowhere."

"No kidding," I replied. I stared at the portal, as if staring at it would help me figure out its secrets. Then Rasial screamed.

I never knew pain like the kind I felt emanating from Rasial. He was hunched over, his hands crossed over his chest and clutching his shoulders. He was screaming, a painful scream that just tore through my soul. As angry as I was with him, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt and sorrow. If he died now...

"Rasial!" I could hear myself, but it didn't really click in my mind that I was talking. I just listened in on my own conversation. "Rasial! It's okay! I'm here!" I walked towards him slowly, afraid that he might collapse and leave me alone. No, I didn't want that. Dear God, please don't let him die.

As I made my way forward, tendrils of light sprouted from his back, forming wings of gold. I don't think they were actually physical wings; if I tried to touch them my fingers would probably go through them. But given what I had just dreamed, and also given the image before me, I came to a hasty conclusion: Rasial was the angel who would bring about disaster for my people.

Wait... when had I started thinking of the goblins, ghouls, and vampires as MY people?

The fleeting thought was chased away as I watched Rasial. He screamed for a few more eternal moments, and then he collapsed. I stared at his body for a full minute, trying to figure out what to do. Then I gathered my courage, picked him up, and headed back towards town and the mansion. Sure, he nearly raped me. But he's still my friend.

Am I screwed up or what?

"So there's this portal down in the Shadow Lands, and you want to go investigate?" Duo was staring at me, like a father staring at her daughter who wants to go out on a midnight date.  
"Um... yeah," I replied meekly. Duo was like a brother to me; but this was the most protective I had ever seen him.

"Too dangerous," Heero said impassively. I glared at him. How dare he butt into my argument! However, I knew it was true. The portal might lead to a freaky dimension where our carbon-based bodies would melt or something. I sighed in defeat. I looked at the others; everyone was here, even Wufei. He looked better.

"I'll protect her," Rasial said quietly. He had recovered rather quickly after I had lugged him back to the mansion. He seemed to be a bit drained, so I cut my hand and let him have a sip. Even though I know I have the power to throw him off, I was still very cautious. I watched him out of the corner of my eye.

Everyone else looked at Rasial after his soft statement.

"We don't know what kind of stuff could be down there," Duo argued. "I don't care how powerful you think you are, there's a buttload of crap that could attack you! And, not to mention it could be a NON-OXYGEN dimension."

"We don't have to breath, remember, Lord Duo?" Rasial replied with a slight tone of insolence in his voice.

Duo threw his hands up. "Why do you want to go, anyway? Is there something you're not telling us, Rasial?"  
"I... just have a feeling, Lord Duo."  
"It better be a good one. Alright, so who wants to go?"

I stepped forward. To my surprise, so did Relena, Dorothy, Iria, and Catherine.

"We'll go," Relena stated. "If anything happens, I'm sure Iria and Quatre can keep in contact with each other, right?"

Quatre and Iria nodded to each other and smiled.

"Right," I said, "then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Rasial and I were down in the Shadow Lands again, packing for the trip. We wouldn't need much; just some sleeping bags and a few snacks, er, more like drinks. Some of the food in the Shadow Lands is specially made for vamps like me. It's liquidy, and it's a good substitute for blood. But it tastes really weird. While we were packing, I asked Rasial a question.

"Is there something you're not telling us?"  
"No."  
"You sure?"  
"Yup."  
"Positive?"  
"Uh huh."

I didn't feel like chasing the subject any further.

The girls met us at the portal between the Shadow Lands and the Upper Grounds. Rasial and I led them out towards the plain where we had first seen the dimensional rift.

"So... where is it?" Dorothy asked in a cynical tone.

It was gone. I looked around, and then I looked at Rasial. He shrugged.

"We could wait here until nighttime," he suggested.

"When's that? It's always dark around here," Catherine asked.

"Um... we'll feel it, don't worry," I answered. Night usually came when the lights in the town died down a bit. I think we run by 36 hour days. "Let's just stay here and wait," I continued. "I'm sure it will show up eventually."

And sure enough, while we were playing cards, a soft yellow light illuminated our game.

"Look, there it is," Rasial said.  
"Thank you, Mr. Obvious," I quipped. He glared at me.

"Well, ready everyone?" Relena looked at all of us and took the first step. Then she took another step, and another and another until she was completely engulfed by the light. Dorothy followed her, and Iria and Catherine went in after her. Finally it was just Rasial and me. He bowed and gestured in a gentlemanly manner, but I pushed him in first. I smirked softly as I, too, entered the portal.

* * *

Chapter End Notes:  
[1]: Heh heh, I 'borrowed' that line from The Count of Monte Cristo. It's actually a good book, if only there weren't so many subplots...  
[2]: I have a tendency of saying this a lot. Might as well get Hilde to say it too.

Whee, cliffhanger. ^_^ It's been a while, so some of you may have forgotten that the Upper Grounds is what the people of the Shadow Lands call Earth. I mean, I forgot, and I'm the author. ^_^;


	8. Chapter 8

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 8**

**By: Top Ace**

* * *

"Whoa."

'Whoa' was most definitely an understatement. I think what Rasial meant was that the world was bathed in a constant glow of warm yellow light, not unlike our sun, but different. This light didn't make us vampires flinch or feel drowsy. It was as if the sun had no more affect on us.

For as far as the eye could see, there were yellow sand dunes, and on the horizon there was a small village, surrounded by an outcropping of rocks, which appeared red against the blue sky. It was a lot like being in Morocco. The wind whipped against our skin, carrying sand into our noses and eyes, and we all squinted against it. We all looked at each other, and silently agreed to head towards the small village, in hopes of finding someone who spoke our language.

We trudged along for quite some time, until we were within yelling distance of the village. I was about to give a loud shout, but Rasial stopped me.

"Wait, remember that we're in unknown territory. What if they're hostile?"

I clamped my mouth shut and we continued walking.

As we neared the village, a few of the men in the front looked and pointed at us, and summoned spears before them. Then they started attacking us!

"Shit, they're hostile!" Catherine yelled as well all backed up the way we came. You never attack civilians; it's one of the rules that was drilled into my head while I was working for OZ. Seems like a funny rule after looking back on the situation, what with OZ being the supposed bad guys and all, but not all the people were bad.

Speaking of bad people, the 'bad guys' were currently shooting energy bolts at us. I watched their black wings unfurl behind them as the five men began to chase us down. I looked back at Relena and Dorothy. They couldn't run with super-human speed. I hoped that Dorothy had a card up her sleeve.

I watched with amazement as she literally pulled a card from her shirt. "Creature of the card, come forth, I summon thee!" With a practiced grace, she tossed the card threw the air in front of her. In a flash she had her staff out, pointing at the card as they were running. By the time they had caught up to the card, which wasn't long, they were both riding on a rather large griffon.

"Cool!" I yelled as I took one final step and leapt into the air. Iria and Catherine had let their wings loose, flying behind the griffon in a V formation. Rasial and I took our places behind them. We looked like a squadron of jet fighters, soaring into the air.

Unfortunately, we were also running back towards the portal in a hasty retreat. The five men continued to chase after us, apparently not noticing the distance we had covered. Were they just going to keep chasing us? Were they going to kill us if they caught up?

There wasn't any time to ponder the question because fireballs from the sky burned the wings off of two of the men, and the other three were dispatched quickly and fell to the ground.

"What happened? I just saw a blur," Relena asked.

But the rest of us had seen. Two seraphim, with WHITE wings, had taken care of our hunters. We all landed and I felt Rasial take his place next to me and a bit in front of me. I touched his arm and moved next to him. I could take care of myself, you know.

The two strangers walked towards us, sheathing their weapons as they moved. We all watched them warily, noting the way they walked and especially the color of their wings.

Relena, being the ever peace-making one, walked forward.

"Thank you for helping us. May we have the honor of knowing your names?"

That woman sure has a way with words. Dorothy watched her, keeping one hand ready to cast another spell. I noticed that the griffon had disappeared. I was wondering where it had went when one of them spoke.

"I am Azrael, and my companion here is Israfil."

Azrael looked very scholarly, with his rectangular glasses and his white long-sleeved shirt with a slightly frilly neckline. I'm assuming he was the one throwing the fireballs, because the edge of his sleeves were a bit singed. Israfil looked like a swordsman out of medieval times, what with the leather vest, slightly ripped baggy pants, and the huge sword hanging at his hip. God, that sounded wrong; never mind me and my euphemisms, please. Israfil smirked when Azrael mentioned the word 'companion'. I wonder why.

"We came to see what was goin' on, and we saw you poor saps trying to outrun some cursed seraphim. So we decided to help out," Israfil said after he was done with his snickering.

Azrael just raised a thin eyebrow in his direction, then turned to us. "Who might you people be, and what are you doing here? Or better yet, how did you get here?"

Relena looked at us, and we all thought it was pretty safe to tell him an editted version of our tale. So she told them that we had been 'accidently' transported here by a rogue portal, and we had been wandering for a while until we spotted the village. Sounds like a believable story, completely true except for the 'accidently' part. Oh, they'll never figure it out. Really. Maybe. Hopefully.

Relena went silent, and all of us watched for their reactions. The two white-winged seraphim looked at each other, and then they looked at us. I noticed Relena furrowing her eyebrows for a split moment. Perhaps something was going on and I couldn't hear it. Iria had that same look, that look you get when you're trying to hear something far away. The psychics were on to something, but there wasn't any time to tell the rest of us, not without having the chance of the two seraphim listening in. After all, if Iria and Relena could hear them, then surely they would be able to hear us.

"Would you accompany us, please. As long as you are here, perhaps you can help us with our mission. We noticed that you all have extraordinary powers, similar to ours, in fact. Except for two of you..." Azrael's eyes rested on Rasial and me. I gulped, trying to squelch my nervousness as he stared into our eyes, looking as if he was searching our souls.

"No matter," he said after a while. "Come, we'll take you to our camp."

"Excuse me, but what do you mean 'mission'?" I asked, partially out of curiosity, and partially because I was suspicious.

"A mission from God," Azrael replied.

God. Right.

So we followed them. Dorothy had re-summoned the griffon again, and most of us were riding on it. Only Iria was flying on her own, along with the two nice seraphim. We were completely aware of the fact that we were probably walking into a camp of religious fanatics. I wasn't complaining, however; Israfil promised a good meal and a shower when we got there. Well, I wasn't sure if I could eat the food here. But if I throw up, we'll know. Stupid vampiric biology can't digest normal food. I'll just feed on Rasial if all else fails. But the who will Rasial feed on...? I'd better just live on the rations for now.

Hunger tugged at my stomach, and I suddenly wanted a bit of blood instead of randomly colored goop. The change must be complete then. It's been complete for a while now, actually. But still, I couldn't get over the fact that I really can't have normal food anymore. Before I could have had at least one bite of a hamburger before my body wouldn't allow any more. But now... Hm, it seems that I really am a true vampire now. I swallowed my despair before it leapt up to bite me. I've been rather calm about this entire situation so far, haven't I? I haven't even contemplated it. I supposed that I was just now getting used to the fact.

I shook my head of the thoughts clouding my mind as we flew closer and closer to the camp.

The camp was actually a rather large clearing in the middle of a small valley in between two cliff faces. Looking at it from the sky, it appeared as if the entire desert was encircled in a giant jagged-edged crater. It seemed eerily beautiful.

When we landed, a group of ten to fifteen white-winged seraphim gathered around us. It was so odd, to see these angels with smiles on their faces and asking us questions, when just a little while before Earth had been attacked by the same people. Well, not entirely the same. The seraphim that had attacked us had had black wings, not snow white wings like these folks. They all seemed friendly enough, and apparently if we were good enough for their leaders, who I assumed were Azrael and Israfil, then we were good enough for everyone else.

After a round of introductions and a retelling of how we got here by Relena, we all sat down to a grand feast of roast... something. I wasn't sure what it was; after all, this is a completely different dimension. The sun was slowly setting across the horizon, people were cheery and laughing.

I enjoyed myself for a while, but after a while I began to hang back, and soon I found myself wandering back to my tent. The good seraphim (I'll have to start calling them angels; they did save us, after all) had given us three tents, one for each couple. While I found part of myself protesting about having to share a tent with Rasial, another part of me found it rather nice to have someone around who would protect me. Deep down, I think I knew that Rasial would never truly hurt me, but another part of me, the suspicious part, argued with that feeling constantly. So whenever I was around him nowadays, it always seemed a bit tense. He had been rather nervous lately too. Usually he was rather calm, collected, and teased me to no end. What happened?

I threw off my shirt and jeans, opting for a light oversized pajama shirt that I threw over my head. It was hot, but I was not going to sleep naked with a man around. Especially Rasial.

I felt him approach the tent before I heard the him brush the canvas 'door' aside.

"You should be on your guard," he said to me in a quiet voice.

"You think?"

He frowned. I'm not sure if he caught my sarcastic tone or not. "I'm getting a... feeling. It's safe here, but there's something else... I don't know. Just be careful."

I smiled. I've never seen him this worried over me. Looking at him, his green eyes colored with worry and perhaps a bit of regret, I couldn't help but brush the past few weeks under the rug for now. I can't really forgive him for what he's done, but he did it for me. I'm sure of it now. I walked towards him and pulled him into my arms.

"I'll be careful. I promise."

I felt his arms tighten around my waist, and he tipped my chin up to get a good look at me. He stared into my eyes, and I felt the lower part of my body clench. I swear, we've been holding out for too long. Maybe part of the tension between us was of a sexual kind.

I felt his lips brush mine ever so lightly. Then he kissed the pulse on my neck before biting, taking his share of blood from his master. That's right, I'm a master vampire too, and now I knew it. I could feel it burning in my body as he drank my blood, my power winding tight bonds around him. He sighed as he pulled away, and went to his knees in front of me.

"My lady Hilde, please, punish me for what I've done to you." He said it with such fervor in his eyes, that I would have looked away if I was still human.

I kneeled down with him, and pulled him down to our sleeping bags, laid out like a thin mattress. Leaning over him, I kissed him on the lips, on the chin, and then the nape of his neck. I straddled his body, feeling the power emanating from him, and the desire as well. I bit down on that soft skin, watching with some odd pleasure as the bright red liquid rolled down his neck. I licked it all up, and then started sucking the wound, worrying the flesh around it. He sighed and arched his back, trying to reach my body perched above him. I smiled and lowered myself onto him until my entire body lay on his. He was taller than me, so my feet didn't quite reach his. I continued to drink, feeling him convulse as I poured my power over and around him.

I finally released him, and he stared at me as if I was a stranger.

"I see you've managed to control that power," he said in a shaky whisper.

I laughed. I guess I had. "I still have to punish you, you know."

"Yes, oh yes. Punish me, my lady."  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I kissed him gently and started unbuttoning his shirt. Why did he wear these stupid business shirts in this place? It was a veritable desert out there, and here he was in slacks and a dark blue button-up shirt. Well, time to get rid of those...

I pulled the shirt off of his shoulders and off his arms, running my hands down his pale skin. I admired his nicely sculpted muscles, and I leaned down to lick a line down his chest. He sighed happily.

"Mmm, Lady Hilde, more..."

More, he said? Fine then. I felt his arms wrap around me and pull me towards him. I let him, and I ended up laying on top of him again. His power radiated like a heater, and I snuggled into his warmth.

He guided my lips to his, and we kissed for who knows how long. I loved the feel of his warm mouth on my skin, sending fire through my veins. I kissed my way down to the hem of his pants, undid the button, and pulled the zipper down with my teeth. His eyes suddenly turned a dark green as he watched me pull his pants off. Now he lay below me, nude and extremely happy to see me.

He sat up, and helped me take my shirt off, barely brushing my sensitive nipples with his lips. His tongue flickered out, and then he just attacked, sucking ardently. I lowered myself onto him and started riding him. His hands grasped my hips, and he controlled my movements, leaning back down to lie on the sleeping bag. I watched him, his eyes returning to that brilliant green as I felt our pleasure building.

I leaned down and kissed him hard, biting his lower lip. He gasped, and his hand traveled to my ass, kneading me gently as I continued to attack his skin with my lips. When I was done, he had hickey marks all over his neck.

Then he smiled up at me, sat up, and flipped us over. I squirmed to gain control again, but I wasn't trying very hard. He had his hips pushed against me so that I could hardly move, and he was looking at me like you'd look at something you've wanted for a very, very long time, and were just about to get it. Like a man who had been out in the desert for forty days and had just come upon an oasis. Rasial stared at me, letting me see the hunger in those emerald eyes.

Then he lifted himself out... and thrusted back in so forcefully that I had to bite back a scream.

"I've wanted you for so long, Hilde, so long," he said in a husky voice as he continued to pound into me, nibbling at every inch of skin that his lips came into contact with. I wrapped my legs around his waist, put my arms around his neck, and hugged myself to him, crying out softly with each thrust. It was so wonderful, this rhythmic pulse of ecstacy throbbing through me.

He pulled free of my embrace and, rather violently, picked me up and tossed me onto my stomach. Then he slapped me in the ass.

"Up."

Obediently, I got up on my hands and knees and lifted my hips. I felt him entering me once again, and once he made sure he was in, began to ram into me. His hands gripped my waist as he moved, and I couldn't help but think about how the situation had been turned. But right at that moment, I didn't care. I let out a strangled cry as he fucked me hard, and oh so very good.

He let go of my hips and leaned over me. I could feel his chest against my back, his arms near mine, and I felt like I was in a protective shell. It felt so nice to be enveloped in his warmth, his body moving behind and above me, his power flowing over me like a hot shower. He licked my neck, and I turned my head to look at him. His eyes were burning with a passion that only love can tame. Only my body could fulfill that deep desire in him. I smiled, and he smiled back, a dark smile full of promises of sex and blood. He kissed me, crushing my lips as he ferverntly explored my mouth, subduing me as easily as I had done to him. We were both master vampires after all; I guess we both had that power to dominate.

As I felt like I was going to burst, Rasial bit down on my neck, drawing blood once again. It was all I could take. I came, moaning his name, my body spasming with pleasure. He came as I did, and the power that flowed between us entwined like snakes around each other. Somehow, I felt complete, whole. That part that I was missing when I died seemed to have come back to me; I knew who had been keeping it. I collapsed onto my side on the sleeping bags, and Rasial fell behind me. He spooned his body against mine, put his arms around me in a protective gesture, and we both fell asleep to the sounds of the night.  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

We awoke to the first rays of the sun. It was odd, actually being awake during this time. For so long I've been used to the darkness, and having this major urge to hide from the sun when it got too bright. But now, it seemed alright. Very odd. I looked over at Rasial, who was still sleeping soundly behind me. He still had his arms around me. I turned in the curve of his arms to face him. His eyes blinked, and he yawned.

"G'mornin' Hilde."

"Yo."

We looked at each other for a while. For me, it felt a bit awkward. For him... I felt a sense of calm from him. That calmed me down, since emotions like that tend to be contagious. I snuggled in his warm body and sighed with satisfaction.

"Did you have fun last night? I didn't hurt you, did I?" Rasial asked.  
"No, you didn't hurt me at all. It was fun."  
"I should probably tell you the truth, huh."  
"Truth?" Now I was a bit suspicious.  
"Yes. I... I did want to take over the Shadow Lands, you know. Usurp your power, and all."

Big surprise there. Well, actually, yeah, it was kind of a surprise.

"You did?"  
"Yes. But... I got to know you... and... I know this sounds corny, but I fell in love with you. So I didn't mind being second in command anymore."

That was a shock. So he's loved me for a long time... and here I didn't notice... Now I feel bad for not realizing it in the first place. I reached out with my senses, trying to see if he was really telling the truth. As much as I wanted to believe him, part of me was still suspicious.

He was telling the truth, however. I could feel it. And I felt something else. I could feel this old feeling, this old bond between Rasial and the old Shinigami, Duo's father. Something that was not quite love, and not quite friendship. It was very strange, but it was a strong feeling. Was it a loyalty to the leader of the Shadow Lands, or maybe even the land itself? I wonder...

Finally I smiled. "So, you wanna co-rule the Shadow Lands?" Honestly, it would really lighten the work load on my end.

He nodded. "I thought you'd never ask..."

That was the last thing he said before he climbed over me and began to touch me, caress me, and generally make me scream in pleasure all over again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 9**

**By: Top Ace**

* * *

When we finally got dressed and out of our tent, the others were already eating breakfast.

"Took you long enough," Dorothy said. "Having fun in bed?"

My face burned. I looked over at Rasial. He was ignoring them. Good for him.

I looked around the table. As strange food was being plopped onto our plates, I looked around for our gracious hosts. They had taken us in when we had arrived, and quite honestly, I actually trusted them. It was a strange feeling, as if these were the angels of the Bible come to life, and that you could trust them fully. It was a weird sensation.

I caught sight of Israfil walking towards us. He had the air of a prowler around him, and in his leather vest revealing much of his scarred chest and a lopsided smile on his face, he seemed very... roguish. I immediately took a liking to him.

"How ya'll doin'? Like the food?" he asked as he sat down with us, taking a chair and turning it around, straddling it and putting his arms on the back. I pushed the food around on my plate with a fork while the others just grunted their appreciation of the grub. Israfil's warm brown eyes bore into me. "Why aren't you eating? You didn't eat last night either."

"Um, I, uh..." I paused, not knowing what to say. It was very difficult to explaim vampirism to angels.

"Our biology wouldn't be able to handle solid food," Rasial said.  
"Oh really? Why's that?" Israfil was asking too many questions already.  
"Because."  
"'Cause why?"  
"Because it would make us sick." Rasial didn't seem to like the fellow much. I didn't have the slightest clue as to why.

"Well, if that's how it is, so be it." Israfil smiled at all us girls, and gave Rasial one last look before heading away.

"What's your problem, Rasial? You didn't have to make it sound like we didn't want to eat the food," I whispered to him once Israfil was out of earshot.

"I don't know, milady, I just don't trust him yet."

I just sighed and made patterns in my food for the rest of breakfast.

"People, we've got to plan an attack."

Azrael was standing on a small podium, speaking out to the twenty-something group of angels. I guess there were more people here than I had originally estimated. He was still wearing that same singed-sleeved shirt, with its frilly neckline. As he spoke, his voice both calmed and invigorated the crowd. It was weird, listening to him as he spread his arms out and preached about the significance of this next attack.

"Good people, we must avenge our fallen brothers and sisters, those that have died to give us a fighting chance against Lucifer, the sinner of sinners, the one who shut us away from our Lord and the one who caused the guardians to slip from on high. Their deaths in another world were due to the guardians of that place, so we cannot hate them for what they have done. In fact, some of them are with us now, to help us defeat the cause of all this misery."

He pointed towards us, and I felt all eyes turn to us. Catherine and Relena, who were used to the spotlight and hundreds of eyes on them, were relatively calm. Dorothy and Iria were always calm, regardless of the situation. Rasial was indifferent to the entire predicament. Only I seemed to be a bit out of it. Normally I would also be able to handle it. But today just seemed weird. I looked around and felt the small yet distinguishable feeling of anger in the angels before us. I looked up to Azrael, and he smiled. He was testing us.

I felt Rasial's warm hand take a hold of mine, and I felt calm almost immediately. Strangely enough, so did the rest of the crowd. Rasial smiled at me, and then looked up towards the podium.

Azrael seemed a bit shocked, but he hid it quickly as he cleared his throat.

"They will help us form a plan to defeat Lucifer and his minions. We will win back our land, and the grace of our Lord!"

Cheers went up all around us. Rasial and I looked at each other and smiled. I guess we passed Azrael's test.

As we walked back to Azrael's tent to formulate a plan, I overheard people talking about Rasial. It was very odd, because most of them spoke about how they could never reach God without Rasial nearby.

"Hey Raz, were you ever here when you were young?"

He shook his head. "No. I don't know which Rasial these people are talking about, but it isn't me."

I shrugged and entered Azrael's tent.

"I'm glad you passed my test," Azrael said as we walked in. Catherine, Iria, Relena, and Dorothy were already here, discussing the strategy as Rasial and I walked towards the table. There was a large map with several angel dolls on them. Around that table were several chairs, one for each of us. So there were two empty chairs left, and there was a fluffy couch at the back of the tent. Not a couch so much as a long, lumpy beanbag chair. There was also a section of the tent cut off by a curtain which probably shielded his private quarters.

"Some test," I said. "Were you trying to enervate us or something?"

The sound of Israfil's laughter reached me from behind a curtain. He stepped out, wearing nothing but his baggy pants. "You are a very funny lady, Ms. Hilde."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rasial's face turn into an elegant scowl.

"Relax Raz, I didn't mean anything by it," he said as he moved past Azrael to the couch nearby. They exchanged a look as he walked. Maybe I've been reading too many yaoi doujinshi and manga, but maybe...

We sat down and began to talk business.

It took hours. No, really, by the time we had finished talking about how we were going to surround the base, night had fallen on the camp. I don't know why it took so long. It really didn't feel like too long. Maybe their time is different here. Of course.

The others went off to eat dinner, while Rasial and I opted to go to bed. There was no point sitting there, looking at all the food and not being able to eat it. Relena understood, and put her hand on my shoulder.

"It'll be better. Just get some rest, you look tired."

I thanked her for her kindness. Relena has so much heart that I don't understand where she gets it all. Everyone gave me looks of confidence, and I knew that in a fight I could rely on them, and that they would rely on me. It was a strange moment while that feeling of trust wafted around us. I nodded and headed back to the tent. Rasial said a quick goodnight to the others and followed me.

I looked over at Rasial as we were walking back to our tent. There was something a bit angelic about him too. His features were only slightly angled, and when he smiled his evergreen eyes held a soft glow. He noticed me watching him and looked back at me.

"Something wrong?"  
"No, just wondering."  
"Wondering about what?"  
"Wondering if there was anyone else in the world called Rasial."  
"Well, they could have meant Raziel, the angel of mysteries."  
"Eh?" I raised an eyebrow at him.  
"I am Christian, you know. I do know my angels."  
"You are?"

And so he went into an explanation of his life before he died, and a little afterwards. He lived for twenty-four years wandering around Ireland and Scotland with his clan, the "B s Dia", or translated from Gaelic "Death God." Strange name for a clan. But apparently their clan was made up of mostly druids who had a strange power: the power to resurrect the dead for a day. They were mostly shunned by the other druid clans, and when vampires took a few of the young men away, Rasial being one of them, none of the other clans helped. He still lived in Ireland for a hundred years or so, and then Serah, the half-sister of Shinigami, took him away to live in the Shadow Lands for 250 years. Then Shinigami revolted, she was killed, and Rasial came to work for him instead. Then Shinigami died a hundred years later when we were fighting Morbius, and then Rasial met me. That was basically the gist of his life story.

While he was telling me all that, we had made it to our tent, stripped off our clothes, and lay together in each other's arms, basking in the warmth of the other. I think I fed off of him while he was telling the story, because I remember the part about meeting Shinigami being told rather breathily. It's hard for me to remember.

"So Raziel is the name of an angel?" I asked him after a while.

"Yes. He's also the angel of the universal truth and knowledge. He stood at the curtain separating God and Creation, writing down everything He said. Because Raziel pitied man, he gave the book to Adam. The other angels didn't like that, stole the book and threw it into the sea. But God, instead of punishing him, retrieved the book and gave it back to Adam."

"Wow. You sure know a lot about this particular angel."

"Well, he is my namesake, after all."

Somehow, I got the feeling that this wasn't the entire story. Could this be foreboding? Could it be that I'm foreshadowing some event that happened or will happen?

Nah. That never happens in real life.

The plan was simple. While some of our fastest angels led the guards away from the gate, a few more of us would sneak in and set some fires or some sort of distraction to lead the main force against them, so while they drew them towards the gate, we would ambush them and take out what would be hopefully most of their forces. The idea was the run away when we had caused a good amount of havoc and damage to their base. This wasn't a full out attack; this was merely a hit and run exercise to decimate their forces some, and possibly their moral too. Azrael had said that we didn't have nearly enough troops to have a full on attack, so the only choice was the hit and run strategy. However, he also said that one of his men could take out three of theirs. From the looks of it, this didn't bode well for our side.

The following morning we set out to the enemy's encampment. They were in the cliffs and caves of a mountain range far enough away from our camp that it would have taken us half an hour to get there flying at full speed. But that would sap our power, and we couldn't spare any power for travelling. We had set up an alternate camp near their area so that the trip would be shorter. Fortunately, the mountains in this area were great for hiding from flying enemies. We took refuge in one of the many caves near the establishment. While the soldiers prepared for the attack, Azrael took my group aside.

"Listen, you don't really have to come fight with us. You can stay here and man the base while we go."  
"No way," I replied. "This involves our world too. We're fighting for all of our worlds, not just this one."  
"And if it was just for us, would you help us anyway?" he asked with a skeptical tone.  
"Sure," I said. "Why else would we have been brought here other than to help you?" Of course it was silly to believe in fate sometimes. But I still do.  
He nodded and looked at each of us. "Then you're all ready?"  
We all nodded our heads.

"Then let's do it!"

I watched as a few of our scouts led a bunch of the guards out of caves to an ambush waiting above. The rocks provided great protection and also provided weapons at times. Then Azrael led another group into the caves to throw fireballs and basically cause a lot of mayhem. The main idea was to smoke out the enemy. As they began to trickle out, Israfil led the main group, us plus his soldiers, to the ambush site at the mouth of the cave.

"This isn't the main base, is it?" I asked him.  
Israfil shook his head. "No way. We aren't strong enough to take out his main base. We don't even know where it is. But smashing this smaller base will be good enough for now."

Iria looked at me. "How did you know?"

"That this wasn't a main base? Simple," I replied, "there just aren't enough guards here. Take a look at the number of guards..." I pointed out at the group of our scouts leading them away. "Only half the guards at most ever leave their posts. If only 5 of them are chasing our scouts, then there must be at least another 5 left. That isn't enough for a major base."

Israfil looked impressed. "Wow, you sure know your stuff."

"Yeah, I was in the military for a while." That seemed like such a long time ago, though, when I first met Duo and then the other gundam pilots, and then... I shook my head to clear it, and then I stared out at the caves below.

"I think it's time..." And with that, Israfil swooped down, us following him into the battle.

With a loud whoop, Rasial flew down and charged up that powerful light sword that he used against Uriel so long ago. He was showing his true power, or at least a larger fraction of it. But my attention was soon drawn to the other guards pouring from the establishments. There seemed to be far too many for a small outpost...

I fought my way to where Israfil was dealing with two soldiers. I blasted one out of the way and we stood back to back for a while, fighting off the enemies with a practiced ease. After dealing with the big bosses first, the lackeys were easy to beat.

"How long has this outpost been here?" I asked him loudly.  
"Um, only about three days or so. Why ask me now?"

I suddenly had a sinking feeling. "I get the feeling we walked into a trap."

As if on cue, the mountain was suddenly crawling with enemy troops. They sprung out of caves everywhere, taking many of Azrael's people by surprise. I went to help, saving as many people as I could from the attack. Apparently we were some of the more powerful fighters here. Speaking of whom, Azrael showed up after his fireball run and said, "There was practically no one in there! We've been had!"

What I wanted to say was 'well duh', but now was not the time for sarcasm. We hurried to save who we could and have a tactical retreat.

"Go!" I shouted, gesturing for people to retreat as I covered their backs. They thanked me and quickly flew off. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. I had to throw powerballs to aid their escape, which practically directed all of their attention to me. Pretty soon I could no longer aid in the escape, since I was fighting off a whole horde of the goon squad.

"Wuah!" One screamed as a golden sword sliced through him. Ah, Rasial, my hero. He slashed a few more to get to me as I was leaping from rock to rock, trying to avoid the mob.

"Looks like you got a fan club," he teased.  
"This is, no time, for jokes!" I said between breaths.  
"Relax, these are small fry. Watch," he said before he lifted a hand and blasted ten of them away, knocking their bodies into their comrades below. Yet they still came.

"Jesus, there's no end to them."  
"So save your energy and run like me."  
"I thought you had lots of power left, Lady Hilde."  
"I'm saving it for the big kahuna."

He just nodded and we kept leading them away from the retreating forces. By the time I had reached the top of the mountain, it seemed as if the entire camp was after us. I risked a look down and behind me and saw that Azrael's forces were all leaving safely. Good, I was worried a bit about them. Azrael was also leading Israfil's group along with his own, which made me wonder where his companion had gone.

I soon found my answer as Rasial and I turned to face the throng of pursuers. Israfil hacked his way through the crowd, but there truly were too many of them. Rasial let loose a war cry and started lopping off heads left and right. Honestly, I thought these guys could fight better. Buoyed by Rasial's strength, I threw myself into the battle, beating up seraph after seraph, knocking them away from Israfil's position. Soon we had formed a small circle, trying to fight our way out.

"You know, I hate being surrounded," Israfil remarked rather calmly.

"What a coincidence, so do we," Rasial replied.

I didn't want to say things couldn't get worse, because by saying that you practically welcome bad luck to your door. Just thinking that thought will summon the god of 'things getting worse' to you.

So as I was thinking of not saying that, a dark cloud began to amass itself above us. A familiar deep laugh echoed in the sky.

Ah, shit.

Lucifer appeared in all of his black glory in the blue sky. He was like a smudge on a perfectly good sapphire.

"Well well, what do we have here? Have you perhaps fallen into my trap?"

I scowled.

"Take her," he ordered, and with that, vanished back into the cloud.

The living seraphim suddenly backed off, and the ones we had killed slowly rose to their feet. Those without heads just ambled about, but once they had latched onto a living being, they stuck. Unfortunately, the first living person they touched was me. Now technically, I'm UNdead, so I'm not really living, but I'm not really dead. Either way, I wasn't one of them, therefore I was fair game. It kinda sucked, since they were suddenly stronger too. More of them came, and as Rasial tried to hack at their limbs to set me free, they just rammed themselves into him. Like a bullet to a human, the zombies threw Rasial and Israfil off the edge. I tried to reach them, but the monstrosities just kept hanging on to me. I managed to drag myself over to the ledge (it wasn't that far, maybe six feet) and looked over. Israfil was dragging Rasial away. Obviously they could see something I couldn't.

"HILDE!"

I tried to reply to Rasial's shout, but no sound came out. I found that I couldn't speak. It felt like my vocal cords had sealed shut. Then I felt the shadow behind me. I looked back to see dark red eyes staring down at me.

"Good night, little angel."

Then his eyebrows furrowed, and I felt like a million volts of electricity just shot through my body. I don't remember hitting the ground before my mind went to black, just a far off cry of someone calling to me...

"Hilde..."

* * *

Hm, I'm revealing an awful lot of plot now. There were some parts that were blatantly obvious, so I didn't even bother covering it up. So if it seemed like a blow to the head with a ten ton brick... then yeah, I wrote it that way. ^_^;


	10. Chapter 10

We're getting on to the last part folks, hang on to your socks, this one's a doozy... I'm starting to get more sarcastic, so this part will be a bit strange... if characters seem way OOC for this fic... then I apologize. ^_^;

**Ties to Forever**

**Part 10**

**By: Top Ace**

* * *

I woke up on a soft, fluffy bed in a black room. The sheets were black, the pillows were black, the walls were painted black, the furniture was black, and the few books that were lying on the black table were also black. Hell, the room was even dark; I could barely see the sun setting under the black drapes over the window to my far right. I'd have to say, this person has some serious problems.

Then I remembered where I was. Dark lord of Hell had captured me. Whoopee. I scanned the room for anything that could be potentially harmful to me. There didn't seem to be any sharp things or blunt objects in the room that could seriously hurt me. There were two maps on the wall closest to me on my left, but I couldn't really make out what they were in the dark. I tried to sit up, but I failed and I fell back. Then I noticed the handcuffs.

Now I was scared. I tried an experimental tug, but that was a bad idea. I could feel my energy drain into the metal cuffs with each movement I made. My heart started racing, the adreneline pumping like nobody's business. I was in ass deep in alligators now. Hell, scratch that, I was neck deep in alligators.

Energy sapping handcuffs were the least of my troubles when Satan walked in. He snapped and a light appearing above my head made me flinch. As he walked towards me, I calmed down and decided on the friendly approach to greeting him, because quite frankly, the cuffs were making me light-headed and being panicked wouldn't help the situation.

"Yo, Satan."  
"I am not that heathenish demon. Don't confuse the truth with your damn beliefs."  
"So Lucifer and Satan are different?"  
"Yes. He's an actual demon. I'm an angel."  
"Right. And I'm Anita Blake."

He looked at me strangely then. Apparently he doesn't read books. [1]

"No matter." He fixed me with a dark glare. "Do you want to know why you're here?"  
"Not particularly." I was beginning to feel like I was really drunk.

"Too bad, you're going to hear it anyway. Do you know how long I've waited for this? You damn brown noser, always standing there next to the pillar of God and receiving his good will. They called you closest to God, you received gifts from the people for your service, and what did you do? You ran away, you good-for-nothing sonuvabitch. With so little effort you became His favorite, while I worked my ass off trying to please Him, and He just ignored me. Well, he can't ignore me anymore. I'm sick of this. His 'experiment' with your world needs to be eliminated. I can't stand those humans, those made in His image and all that bullshit. It's been thousands of years since he gave those damn monkeys sentient thought and for what? They're all just a waste of energy, a waste of perfectly good materials that could be made into MY image. And so I shall, with your death."

That woke me up. "My death? I won't be dying any time soon, thank you very much."

"Oh yes, you will," he said while chuckling. "Do the words 'when the angel awakens, a disaster shall befall the world, to those who sustain life through death' sound familiar?"

I remained silent.

"They should, because those are the words I spoke to you in your dream. You are the reincarnation of that damn snob, Raziel!"

My eyes widened. Raziel? Rasial? Are they the same? They had to be, no doubt. Why else would they have the same name? Well, that could be coincidence, but the immense power and that sword he wields aren't. Not to mention those astral wings I saw before we came to this world. Then why does he think that I'M Raziel reborn?

"Surprised? You should be. I never thought he would be reborn as a female. You see, when you ran away to the Earth, you forgot that your powers work differently in that world. Your immortality drained away, and you died soon afterward. And then you were reborn into a different body. I lost track of your soul then, because apparently your human body shields the soul enough that I can't detect it without a lot of effort. Not to mention that you sealed yourself in that dimension, you creep."

I just swallowed and tried to take in all the information with open ears and an open mind. This was too mind boggling, even for me.

He walked up to the bed and slapped me in the face. "Of course, when we finally managed to burst through a crack in your damn seal, I started sending people to destroy your focal points."

He pointed at two maps on the wall. "We broke the seal in this pathetic city with the sacrifice of a wandering soul, and then we moved on to the others. Humans are very fragile creatures, I realize. A small chunk of concrete falls on one of them and they go splat."

I remembered the girl and her puppy, I remembered Meiran's screams, and I seethed. But I slowly dulled the edge on my anger in an effort to save myself the energy so that I could get revenge later.

"Why did you kill your own companions?" I asked.

"They were the original guardians of those focal points, and because they can't truly be turned to evil, I confused them, made them think that I was the true Lord, which I should be. But in order to truly take over my world, I had to dispose of them, because killing them would rip open a larger hole to all the dimensions. Which is why I killed them all."

"You sick "

"But enough about how we got to your world. The words I said are part of my plan. When your angelic powers awaken I shall kill you, taking out the life in your miserable dimension, the beings that sustain life through death."

I rolled that over in my mind for a bit. But I still didn't know why life on Earth was the target, not the Shadow Lands. And why would my death cause the death of the entire world?

"You look confused. Think about it. A cow eats living grass, killing the blade as it chews it up for sustenance. A human will eat the dead cow. Grass will live on the nutrients of the dead human. It's all a circle of sustaining life through death. It's hideous and it must be stopped."

I'll admit, it sounded depressing even to me, but I couldn't agree with stopping it. "You can't just stop life just because you don't like it. Things die, and we all have to accept that. We give and we take, it's all fair. Haven't you ever heard the term 'circle of life'?"

"No, I haven't. But no matter. I will recreate the world in MY image, a superior one that will take over all the dimensions we find."

I didn't say anything. He seemed like a power-crazy guy trying to play God. Actually, he WAS a power-crazy guy trying to play God. I really, really needed to get out of this place.

Lucifer's blood red eyes were boring through me. "And you, you are the key to this; He has said that Raziel's soul shall never perish. But I want to make that statement false... and when one of His statements is made false, the world's power will reverse on itself, and existence as we know it will change.

"And your sacrifice, my dear," he said, grasping my chin and forcing me to look at him, "will bring about the end and the new beginning. Your death will ring in the final judgement..." He trailed off there, his eyes trailing down, down, too far down.

"It's too bad, really. You'd make a lovely treat to nibble on..." He leaned in and nipped at my neck. I drew as far away from him as I could. He just laughed, a deep sound that made parts of me shiver.

Then he turned and walked out.

I stared after him for a few moments, mulling over what I should do. Escaping seemed improbable given the fact that I was still handcuffed and every little movement I made drained me of energy. I decided to sit tight and hope someone would at least release me from the cuffs. Then I could try and make a break for it.

But all hopes aside, the current situation felt, well, hopeless. I viciously pushed down the fear I felt welling up inside of me. I closed my eyes and kept my tears to myself.

Unbeknownst to me, I had fallen into a deep sleep. When I awoke, I was right-side up. There was a large altar that looked vaguely like Stonehenge in front of me. My arms were sore for some reason, and my lungs were oxygen-starved. I finally began to realize what position I was in.

I was crucified.

There weren't any nails in my hands or feet, thank goodness, but I was tied up rather tightly, and I was beginning to not feel my toes and my fingers. I struggled a bit more, and felt my energy flow over to the altar below. This was NOT good. I decided to sit still and perhaps the oppotunity for escape would fall into my lap. But I was really hard pressed to stay calm with Lucifer looking like some neo-Hitler wannabe in front of his soldiers, preaching to them.

"My disciples, we will reach the tower of heaven and take control! Together we will rule the worlds and become master of their domains! WE are the chosen people and WE shall be victorious!"

The crowd cheered. I glared.

"And when those inferior people come to rescue their precious woman," he said with a tone of disgust while pointing at me, "we shall entrap them! Yes! We will destroy the last of the stragglers who refused to join with us!"

A trap. This is not a good thing. I closed my eyes and tried to contact somebody, anybody, but I felt a large metaphysical hand smack me upside the head.

"Ah ah ah, little girl. No one can watch you die if you warn them."

I struggled in my restraints. I wanted to get free, and time was ticking away. I had to warn them. I opened my mouth to scream...

... but no sound would come out.

"Aw, did you lose your voice? Or maybe there's a sound barrier?"

I was really starting to get sick of this bastard. I poked around with my power, and sure enough, there was a strange kekkai around me. [2] This guy had thought of everything. Hope began to sink. Because of me, the others would be pulled into a trap. Especially Rasial. Oh no, Rasial... No, don't come, please don't...

"CHAAAAAAAAARGE!"

Crap. A scream sounding like it came from Israfil rang through the air. Hundreds of white-winged angels swooped down from the skies, raining fiery death upon the masses. The seraphim scattered.

I watched like some kind of third-party observer as the chaos ensued. The trap was set, the bait was laid, and now the angels were being overwhelmed by the sheer number of the seraphim. I couldn't do anything, one, because of the chains, and two, because of the kekkai. I watched Azrael, Israfil, and Rasial destroy mobs of them, heads flying, blood spilling... I know they're kind of busy and all, but why weren't they coming to save me?

"They can't see you."

I looked down to see Lucifer preparing the altar. He seemed so calm with the chaos going around them.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"The barrier that blocks your voice also blocks the area around you. As far as they know, the pillar you're tied to is an empty pillar. They could cut it in half with you on it."

Well crap.

I watched, waiting for someone, a stray sword, an unlucky hit, to strike me down while I was stuck here like a sitting duck. But for some strange reason, none of the seraphim came even close to the altar. Well, I suppose it wasn't that strange. I mean, THEY knew I was here. One of the others must have figured it out by now. But what will happen then? If they decide to attack the altar, then I'm as good as screwed.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

I had no time to wallow in my own misery; a blood curdling scream came from the battlefield. I searched for the source, squinting my eyes against the glare of the desert.

The splatter of blood into the sky wasn't a good sign. As I watched helplessly, I saw the seraphim crowd around Israfil, their mass drowning out any glimpse I had of him. I saw Azrael fly towards him, only to be bashed to the side by another horde of the enemy. And I saw Rasial get knocked down to the ground right outside of the altar. He didn't get up.

Everything happened as if it was in slow motion. I couldn't think. I couldn't feel. My mind went to a dark, static filled place, and I just watched, horrfied, but I couldn't turn away. I saw Israfil's white wings get ripped from his body, the blood spilling the ground, and I saw him fall.

"ISRAFIL!"

Azrael yelled, cutting off heads and limbs left and right, all to get to his comrade. I could feel the pain in his scream as he stood above Israfil, defending his lax body like a madman. I felt so helpless, so lost, and I knew Azrael felt the same.

"Ugh..."

I looked over at Rasial, and watched him watch the scene. He looked crippled, and I couldn't help him. I couldn't do anything. I was helpless.

But then, a flash of white caught my eye.

Two white wings exploded from Rasial's backside. He screamed loud enough to distract even Lucifer from his preparations.

"What? HE was the one?" Lucifer looked shocked, as if he had never been wrong before. "How could he have been the one? HOW? He showed no sign of the holy power!"

Holy power? Then what did I have within me that he considered holy? Was it Shinigami's power?

Rasial burst through the crowds of black winged seraphim, flying into the sky on his wings of light. They were the color of bright sunshine and his iridescent feathers flew all over the place like sparks of light against the darkness of the night. He summoned his sword, and it glowed with a brilliant holiness, like how crosses glow when in the presence of a vampire, a bright bluish-white flame. He flew towards Lucifer, and drove the sword through his heart. He didn't even have time to defend himself; the shock of having a vengeful archangel flying towards him would shock any major villain. Dark red blood splattered all over the altar like a bucket of paint was thrown on it. A sacrifice was made, and thankfully, it wasn't me.

The power from Lucifer rippled over all of us. His death meant more than I thought it would. The seraphim around me collapsed, their wings shuddering around them. The black melted away, revealing the white feathers of their true forms. The curse was broken; the people could come back.

* * *

[1]: Yes, I know, Anita Blake was a guest character in Eternity of Blood... but let's just say that she has her own line of books, shall we?  
[2]: Kekkai = Japanese word for barrier... they use it a lot in X and probably other supernatural animes.

Ooh, look, PLOT! Yeah, I had to reveal a lot there. But don't worry, not everything is revealed. I'll put up my writing notes when I finish with the epilogue, and you all can read what I'm thinking as I'm writing this... it may reveal some minor details that you may have thought I had forgotten about...


	11. Epilogue

**Ties to Forever**

**Epilogue**

**By: Top Ace**

* * *

We never did figure out exactly why all the seraphim were freed from the curse after Lucifer's death. After all, he did die on the altar like a sacrifice. I figure it was the person who was being sacrificed who would dictate what would happen. The sacrifice of good people would unleash hell on Earth, and the sacrifice of a bad person would release the kingdom of Heaven upon those who deserved it. Or something like that.

Dorothy said that it probably meant that the blood that spilled represented the blood of that which had been defeated, which in this case, was evil. So it was good that the blood of Lucifer was spilled on the altar. Dorothy is really smart.

"So what's this about me having holy power?" I asked Duo after he and Heero had untied me from the cross. Rasial, or rather, Raziel, came and took me in his arms while Catherine and Iria surveyed the damage around us.

"Well, Shinigami was technically an angel, reborn in the human world like me. That's probably why I felt so comfortable and at home around him." Raziel looked different somehow; besides the wings, which was an obvious difference, his eyes seemed far older than 400 years. "I remember everything now. Why I left, who I knew, what went on before I left. It's weird. I've got thousands more years of memories to sort through now." He paused. "But anyway, the point is that Shinigami was an angel, and so he had holy power. I'm assuming he was one of Azrael's relatives, because of his connection with the dead."

"Speaking of Azrael..." I turned my head to where he was crouched over Israfil's body. Raziel got the idea, and we all headed over to him. He was holding Israfil's body, not moving, not uttering a sound.

"Az " I started to say, but he put a hand up.

"It's alright." He turned towards me, and I could see the tears brimming in his eyes. "He died a warrior's death. It's as he would have liked it."

"But can't you bring him back to life?" Raziel asked. Catherine, Iria, and I looked at him. Raziel just smiled and said, "From what I remember, you were the angel of death, but you could also bring people back."

Azrael shook his head. "Not with his wings cut off like this. There's no bringing back an angel if his wings are gone."

"Why not?" Catherine asked.

"Because he wouldn't survive the shock of coming back without his wings. Wings are part of us, it's like bringing back a human who just lost both their arms and a couple of vital organs."

"Oh." I didn't ask any further. I just watched as Azrael picked up his friend and took off.

"Gather the dead and bring them back to base camp," he said in a booming voice to the others. I watched angels take off, many of them with a fallen comrade in their arms. Those of us who could carried as many of the deceased as we could. Dorothy summoned that griffon again, and we all lifted off, with me cradled in Raziel's arms. He still felt like the same Rasial, but looking at him, his wings, his eyes, I felt like a baby all of a sudden. As we were flying back, I thought of something.

"Hey, what happened back in Golden Gate park?"

Raziel just smiled. "Sore wa himitsu desu."

I would have to wait until I got back to ask Duo and the others.

We got back to the base, and the not-so-wounded helped the more wounded. It was a flurry of angels, hurrying back and forth with first aid kits and rushing people to the surgeons. Raziel took me to our tent and set me down on the sleeping bag.

"Rest, Hilde."

I opened my mouth to argue, but instead I yawned. I closed my eyes and fell into blissful sleep. It was so instant, that I had a wisp of a thought that Raziel might have sent me to sleep, but I lost consciousness before that thought could congeal.

I awoke with a sinking feeling. I got up and rushed out.

The commotion from before had died down a little, but there were still angels flitting about looking for this and that, with messages for whoever. I looked around for Raziel, but I couldn't see him. I closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated. I felt a golden presence near Azrael's tent. I walked over there.

I was about to ask the guard at his tent to see if they were in, when both Azrael and Raziel came out. I noticed for the first time that Raziel's wings were sky blue. I also noticed that his eyes kept shifting from grey to green. It was a bit unsettling, actually.

"Hilde, I need to talk to you," he said, as if he knew I had got up and searched for him. Maybe he did know. I just nodded my head and followed him. I looked back at Azrael. His wings were drooped slightly, and he seemed to glow less. Poor guy.

Raziel and I walked to the outer part of the encampment where no one could hear us. This alone made me worry.

"So, what's up?" I asked casually. The sinking feeling in my stomach continued.

"I've decided a few things." Raziel didn't look at my eyes directly. The sinking feeling grew.

"What kind of things?"  
"I want to stay here and help the angels get back on their feet."

My mind froze. "For how long?"  
"I don't know."

I took a deep breath. "When will I see you again?"  
"I don't know."  
"Oh. Well, I'll see you when I see you, I guess."  
"Yeah."

There was no teary goodbye, there was no heartfelt hugs, no dramatic farewells. I watched as Iria, Catherine, Relena, and Dorothy walk into the portal and back to the Shadow Lands. I stood at the edge of the portal, wondering if I should stay or go. My heart was here; it would be the first time I had ever really left it with someone else.

"Go," Raziel said. "The others need you."

I just nodded, and took a step in, then another, and another. Soon I was back in the Shadow Lands, and the darkness filled me. I was home. But it didn't feel the same. As we all walked away towards the city, I felt the portal close and float away, like it always did. I wondered if it would ever open again.

But then I heard a voice, and I knew who it was.

"I'll come back, I promise."

So it's been almost a whole year. Duo said that I should be patient. That my feelings for him will bring him back to me. Sometimes, Duo says smart things. But only sometimes.

Everyone else seemed to be fine. The whole world, in fact, seemed to be fine. Well, other than the loss of human life and major landmarks, but humans can be incredibly resilient, and things were being rebuilt and life went on.

I asked the guys about the time at Golden Gate Park. Wufei, Quatre, Trowa, and Heero said they were out cold, but Duo remembers a golden sword, and this feeling, he said it felt like a rug of gold being wrapped around him. I tucked that information into the back of my mind. I figured Raziel already had some major power at that point. God, I miss him.

I stood out on my balcony once more, like I used to when things were simple. Before I had to fight for this world and worlds beyond, before I found out that Raziel was way more than I thought he was, before I realized that Raziel held my heart.

It was October 31st, when the barrier between worlds was at their weakest. Every night I would walk around out here and hope that he would come back, and every night I came back inside, alone. I was beginning to lose hope, but then again, it must take a long time to rebuild an entire world. I would just have to have patience. But I didn't want to. I wanted him here, with me now, to hold me like he used to. Dammit all.

"Dammit!" I screamed into the night. "Where the fuck are you!"

"No need to be so vulgar, my lady. It's not becoming of the ruler of the Shadow Lands."

It couldn't be. I turned around, and there he was, standing in the doorway, as if he had never left. My heart paused, then started beating as if it was the last day it could ever beat.

"Hey, where've you been?" I said, trying to keep my cool.

He just shook his head and laughed. "C'mon, don't try and fool me. Just run into my arms like any good lover."

I crossed my arms. "On one condition."

He raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"You stay with me forever."

"Whatever my lady wishes of me, that I will do." He bowed like a lord from a royal court. He looked up and winked his grey-green eyes.

I just laughed and flew into his arms. Forever doesn't seem so bad now.

Fin.

* * *

Oh my god, I've finished... Took me damn long enough! Thanks for keeping up with me through all this! Thanks to those who've had the patience to keep reading even though it's been so long...


	12. Final Notes  Seraphim Types

This is my list of seraphim, the animals that represent them, what they're wearing, and sometimes eye color! ^_^

NOTE: I got my information from all over the Internet. And you all know how reliable that is... so if my information seems a bit off, please inform me...

Raguel  
Wears a dark blue robe and he holds a staff with an eagle on its head. His eyes are hazel.  
Animal: Eagle  
Why?: Raguel is the angel that grants spiritual beliefs and religious knowledge, and eagle can represent spiritual power. And it just seemed like a good critter at the time... ^^;;

Saraqael  
Wears a dark green robe and he holds a spear with snakes wrapped around the pole. His eyes are dark brown.  
Animal: Serpent  
Why?: Saraqael is an angel who watches over the souls who sin in the spirit. Snakes were seen as guardian spirits in Greek mythology. In the Temple of Athena in Athens, a serpent was kept in a cage and was called the Guardian Spirit of the Temple.

Remiel  
Dressed in a white robe with a sword. The handle of the sword was designed in the shape of crane, the pommel made of the feet, the grip made of the legs, the quillon made of the wings and the guard was made of the neck and head. His eyes are light blue.  
Animal: Crane  
Why?: Er... well, Remial is supposed to give his true divine visions to Baruch before destroying Baruch's enemies... (Don't ask me who Baruch is, I have no idea) And the crane is sometimes seen as a messenger for the gods, so I kinda put that together... besides, cranes are cool!

Uriel  
Wearing a Japanese battle Hakama with a black swan pattern on the back. He wields a black katana.  
Hakama Picture  
Animal: Black Swan  
Why?: Swans are associated with healing waters and the sun in Celtic tradition. I chose black because I chose raven at first because they are messengers of Apollo, the Greek god of prophecy and the sun, but then I switched over to swans because ravens are connected to death, while Uriel is supposed to be the archangel of salvation. However, Uriel is also the overseer of Tartarus and the angel of destruction and punishment, so I made the swan black to match that. And also, my version of angels are the designated "bad guys" in my story...

Michael  
Wearing a purple cape and white roman gladiator outfit. He has a vampire sword.  
Animal: Wolf  
Why?: Wolves can have a double face in mythology; it can be demonic, and it can be beneficial. On the beneficial side, wolves can be seen as protectors and Michael is the angel that protects those who are just and good.

Gabriel  
Wearing a dark red cape and black roman gladiator outfit. He has a large Italian axe with an elongated handle, with two smaller axes on his belt.  
Animal: Raven  
Why: Ravens represents a threefold function as war, fertility and prophecy in Celtic lore. Ravens also usually represent death and ill-omen. In Chinese mythology, there is a three-legged raven in the sun that represents sunrise, noontide, and sunset. Since Gabriel is the angel of death and resurrection, I felt that the rising and setting of the sun represented the resurrection, and the rest of the stuff about ravens being associated with death fills in the rest.

Raphael  
Wearing a green cape and white roman gladiator outfit with a black leather vest over a white tunic. He has an English partizan.  
Animal: Tiger  
Why?: In Chinese myths, the yellow tiger represents the sun. (There are many different colored tigers, representing different things.) Also, I think tigers are graceful creatures, and many people in Asia believe that if you use items from a tiger, they will heal you. Raphael is the angel of the sun, healing, and grace. And other things too, but I don't feel like listing them all.

Lucifer  
With a black leather body suit, a black cloak, and black gloves, he looks downright dangerous. His eyes are blackish-red, the color of dark blood. He has looks that can kill...  
Animal: Spider  
Why?: "Hindu and Buddhist myths depict the spider as weaver of the web of illusion. In Japan, Spider Women ensnared unwary travelers, and the Goblin Spider was a shape-shifter who appeared in different forms to harm people. The huge spider Tsuchi-Gumo caused trouble in the world until it was trapped in a cave and smoked to death (steel could not kill it)." And yes, it's in quotations because I copied and pasted that information from a website [lost the URL, sorry! It was probably wikipedia though.].


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